Tagged! And Misc. Gabbing

Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world. ~Ada Louise Huxtable

Diane Craver tagged me over the weekend on a fun meme, so here you go:

I have to answer the questions below. Then, I “tag” four more people, asking them to post their answers to the same questions.

Four Movies that I can see over and over.
1. Undercover Blues (I <3 this movie)
2. The Princess Bride (I've seen it a hundred times and STILL catch new stuff)
3. While You Were Sleeping (never fails to make me smile)
4. Ever After (Except for Drew Barrymore's abysmal accent, this was a stellar movie)

Four Places I have lived.
1. Rancho Cordova, CA
2. Mount Aukum, CA
3. Colorado Springs, CO
4. Sacramento, CA

Four TV shows that I love to watch.
1. House (I'm a late comer to this, but how can you NOT enjoy the show?)
2. Eureka (Funniest "thinking man's" show EVER -- Carter is the best)
3. The Closer (She's such a mess personally, and so sharp on the job -- I'm endlessly amused by her)
4. NCIS (IMHO one of the best casts ever)

Four places where I have gone on vacation.
1. Lincoln, NH (when I lived in CO)
2. Walt Disney World (my anniversary)
3. Honolulu, HI
4. Monterey, CA (when I lived in CO)

Four favorite foods.
1. Thin crust, vegetarian pizza... yum.
2. Tacos (or almost any other Mexican food)
3. Vegetarian Lasagna
4. Almost anything chocolate

Four websites I visit daily
1. The Long and the Short of It
2. Facebook
3. Twitter
4. A zillion author blogs... :-)

Four places I would rather be.
1. Nearly anyplace west of here.
2. Visiting my mom
3. Hawaii
4. Arizona

Four things that I would like to do before I die.
1. Have a NYT Bestseller.
2. Travel.
3. See my mom again.
4. See my daughter grown, settled and happy.

Four novels I wish that I was reading for the first time.
1. The Last Herald Mage from the Valedemar series by Mercedes Lackey
2. The Dragonrider of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey
3. Most of Nora Robert's trilogies
4. Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie

Wanna play? consider yourself tagged!!

Edited to add:

Judy played. She's "tag" number one! Anyone else?

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So, I'm trying to figure out TwitterFeed, but can't figure out how to find the RSS feed associated with my blog. Can anyone help? I feel like an idiot...

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We have a mole in our vegetable garden. Even though he's not eating the plants, he's still managed to do a bit of damage. *sigh* Just saying

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Do you think it might clear up today? Could it? Would it?

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Wrote yesterday. Plotted out an entire short story from beginning to end and started writing. Decided I didn't get to start anything new from now on unless I knew the entire story. I have WAY too many "ideas" that I've begun that just sit and do nothing on my computer. I've never been a plotter. We'll see if it works for me. If it does, I'm going to try to start it on my longer works.

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I'm BAAAACK!

A real friend is someone who would feel loss if you jumped on a train, or in front of one. ~Author Unknown

Did you miss me? I hope you enjoyed my guest bloggers -- though I didn't plan the schedule well, and apologize for having them all at once. Still, they were all so much fun and I can't wait to read their books (well, except for The Geek Girl's Guide -- read that already).

It POURED rain last night. POURED. I'm a little afraid to go outside and look at my gardens... I'm sure things must have been crushed. Twice the sound of the rain woke me up. Amazing. I mean, we needed some wet stuff, but it didn't all have to fall in a matter of a couple hours. Actually, it's still raining now, but has eased up a bit. Holy cow.

Was looking at my blog stats the past few days and had to laugh at my keyword referrals. It would be nice if people were actually looking for me -- but they aren't. The most common? Voles. Or voles vs. moles. I did get one on milorganite and milkweed (not sure what they have in common -- though if anyone googles it again: milorganite doesn't kill milkweed, it fertilizes it and I use milorganite to keep the deer away from my plants... note to self: reapply milorganite since the rain most assuredly washed away what was there).

Still, it appears that I'm not the only one with vole problems -- nor am I the only one who is looking for an answer. I've actually gotten a few emails from readers asking what I've done, what worked and what didn't. It's amazing to me that there is so little information out there regarding voles. In fact, it made me turn to one of my favorite books: Jerry Baker's "Old-Time Gardening Wisdom" to see what he had to say. And.... he said nothing. Nothing. (Though Sarita will be relieved to know that his recipe for dandelion wine included a fermentation lock). Still, for people looking to garden pretty much naturally (like Maria Zannini), it's a great book to have.

One exciting thing: this weekend (Sunday, to be precise) barring nose-bleeds, schedule changes and acts of God, I will be meeting with at least one other author (and anyone else in the neighborhood who wants to come... readers, authors, lovers of bread and coffee), Denise Robbins, at the Panera Bread in Bedford, NH. We'll be there early (Denise says she'll be there by eight a.m. -- I can't promise I will be) and will stay for a few hours. I'd love to see you there!

What plans do YOU have for the weekend?

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Your Gift Is Energy

You are easily excitable, and you love to be on the go. You crave intensity. You need to live a dynamic, interesting, and challenging life. Otherwise, you get bored. It's hard for you to relax. You're constantly being inspired to do something. You're the type of person who finds success, innovation, and creativity easy.

What's Your Gift?

Hmmm... mostly right...

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Moles vs. Voles

It is utterly forbidden to be half-hearted about gardening. You have got to love your garden whether you like it or not. ~W.C. Sellar & R.J. Yeatman, Garden Rubbish, 1936

Yesterday, Ceri asked how moles and voles are different. Interestingly, most folks have never even heard of voles -- and this includes places like Home Depot, where I went to get some kind of vole control yesterday (unsuccessfully).

::Warning: Stepping on Soapbox::

As an aside, I was horrifed at all the truly inhumane ways you can catch mice and rats. Seriously. Glue traps? Should be outlawed... can you imagine?? How can anyone just throw a live animal away while it either starves to death or chews off its own limbs to get away? "Pest" or not, it deserves humane treatment, IMHO. Kill it if you must, but quickly and as painlessly as possible, please (which is why I agonize over using poison... and still haven't decided to do so).

::Steps down from Soapbox::

In any case...

Moles: First off... moles are far less destructive than voles, IMHO. They also eat insects (another plus) -- typically grubs, and other critters that live in the ground, and any damage they do to your lawn and garden is incidental. They are solitary (ANOTHER plus!), produce young only once a year and have small litters (WOOT! Another plus!) and they look like this (they're fairly large -- at least the one my dog, Bailey, dug up was... about 8" long):



Voles: Voles eat vegetation, feeding on roots, bulbs and anything they can find -- tops AND bottoms of plants (most recently, my voles ate all the green parts of my crocus plants... grr). They cause a lot of destruction by gnawing on young trees and shrubs. They can strip the bark of the plant at ground level, killing or exposing it to insects or diseases. They have a tremendous reproductive rate, able to give birth at one month of age and have several litters a year. They look like this (and are TINY... maybe two inches long):



I have to decided what to do soon -- if I plant my veggie garden without having these buggers under control, they'll just eat that, too.

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You Are Milk Chocolate

A total dreamer, you spend most of your time with your head in the clouds. You often think of the future, and you are always working toward your ideal life. Also nostalgic, you rarely forget a meaningful moment... even those from long ago.

What Kind of Chocolate Are You?

Umm... not really...

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It's a Cold, Cruel World

There are many things that you're not supposed to eat, especially children. -- Mary Margaret McBride

That struck me funny, so I had to share. It really doesn't have much to do with today's post (and, a good thing, too).

I probably have an overly rosy view of the wild -- a little Snow White-ish, with bird singing, and raccoons dancing. And I do hate the idea of killing a critter for what I think is no good reason. Hence this story:

Over the past month or two, our lawn has been the lumpy home of a mole. We have a healthy, green lawn and is probably full of yummy bugs (most likely earthworms, since I bought a passel a couple of years ago and I'm sure they've multiplied), so it's almost like we put up a "welcome" sign to the critter.

My DH, who is a fanatic about the lawn, demanded I kill him. I said I would look into non-lethal mole eradication, but I didn't figure we should kill him. Moles are awfully cute and fuzzy. We found one out a couple years ago (actually, I think my dog dug him up) and I carried him far, far away a released him (to the horror of my DH who thought, again, I should have killed him). My luck, this is the same mole.

Anyway... I tried those little stakes that beep (Mole Chasers), and it worked fairly well. They have a much smaller range than the package claims, but the mole didn't come into that area. Until DH lowered the mowing deck too far on the mower and shattered the top. The moment that thing was broken, the mole came back.

I kept hoping the ground would freeze, so I could ignore the problem until next year. But we've had a very mild fall. DH declared I had to buy poison, he'd had enough. I was supposed to go get it last week, but couldn't *ahem* find the time.

Well... Thursday, something happened that took that right out of my hands. As you probably know, I have lots of bird feeders. Now and then, unfavorable birds come by to join in the feast -- grackles, crows, etc. We have a local murder of crows (I love saying that!) who visit regularly. I let them be because they clean the mess on the ground (them and my gray squirrel -- I don't chase him because he doesn't get on the feeders like those rotten red squirrels do). On Thursday, one of the crows was pecking, chowing down on all the seed those sloppy finches and chickadees leave when he did this weird hop, grabbed and flew off.

With the mole.

It's amazing we were even watching (what are the odds? It's not like I spend all day looking out the window!) and amazing the crow found the sucker (who must have stuck his head up for two seconds... bad timing on his part). We weren't sure at first that it was the mole -- it happened pretty fast. We knew it got something small and gray. But I went out later and stomped down all the mole hills and they haven't come back.

So, though part of me is sad for that fuzzy little critter, at least his death served a purpose AND absolved me of the lifetime of guilt I would have felt if I'd poisoned him just so our lawn could be pretty. I never thought I'd be thankful to a crow. Ugh.

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My latest story, The Christmas Curse, is in the bottom spot of the overall bestsellers at The Wild Rose Press. I was worried for a bit that I wouldn't hit this time (for the first time!)

It's also number three in the short stories, and number four in all general contemporary sales. So, I can't complain. And Dru sent me the nicest email about it yesterday. Warmed the cockles of my heart. Thanks again, Dru! It's always nice to know that your work is appreciated!

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You Are a Chick Rocker!

You're living proof that chicks can rock You're inspired by Joan Jett and the Donnas And when you rock, you rock hard (Plus, you get all the cute guy groupies you want!)

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

Thank goodness for that! When I was in high school, the Go-Gos were all the rage ("We Got The Beat!") and I wanted to be in an all girl band like crazy. I had a friend who played the drums, and I would sing (not much call for the flute in a rock band...) but we never did manage to find anyone to fill out the numbers. Oh well.

You?