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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Problems, Pillars and Puttering

I plan on living forever. So far, so good. ~Author Unknown

Am all but having a nervous breakdown because I can't load up today's new pages at The Long and the Short of It today. Seems our webhost is having issues. GAH. Gives me the shakes, because I don't even have a way to tell people that I'M TRYING. No ETA on when their issue will be fixed either. :::grumble, grumble:::

The butterbabies (aka Pillars) have more than doubled in size. Seems the one I found had JUST hatched! Yesterday, as I was watering the floral foam, I looked at the tip of the leaf he'd been on and there was an itty bitty "bubble" -- his eggshell.

I find the differences between the two species of butterflies we raise very interesting. For instance, the first thing a monarch does upon hatching is to turn around an EAT it's egg. Makes me wonder if it's kind of like colostrum? And... monarchs go on "walkabout" to shed their skins (which is why they get kept one each in small, COVERED containers. The Black Swallowtail just sits on its food and sheds its skin and only goes "walkabout" when it's ready to become a pupa. They both eat their shed skin, however.

Is talking about eating skins appropriate this early in the morning?

Will try to get some comparison pictures today so you can see how big the babies are getting to be. AND... it's finally supposed to be at least a little sunny today, so we may go on a pillar search later to see if we can find more.

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Did more edits on Stiller Creek. I like my new character (which I shouldn't because this character is the bad guy) and I feel sorry for him. Should the bad guy invoke pity? Hope so, since mine does -- at least to me!

Also found some anthology call-outs that I may consider. 15 - 20 thousand words and it'll go to print. That would be cool. There are bunches of subjects they want, so finding something to write about (even something I'm currently working on) should be simple enough.

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Okay... gotta go check my hosting site and see if I can get the LASR/WC pages up yet. I'm getting the shakes...

How is YOUR day going?

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Of Releases (all types!)...

Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books - even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome. ~William Ewart Gladstone

I'm so excited! My friend, Allie's latest book was released today. "One Night In Memphis" promises to be a great read (I've read through some of it in it's pre-edited condition, and can't WAIT to get the whole enchilada!).

Check out her blog here (cuz, she's having a cool contest, too).

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Okay... a personal pet peeve when visiting author websites: no contact information. Lately, I've been notifying folks when we do their reviews (the ones my reviewers do without a request -- print books or eBooks they buy on their own), and more than once I've gone to a website and been unable to find contact information, or else it's so hidden or the navigation is so convoluted, that I waste time (my most precious commodity).

So, folks, if you have a site -- make your contact information easy to find. Please.

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I'm beginning to get the shakes -- I have NOTHING else submitted anywhere right now. That's bad. "Kitchen Matches" comes out next month and then... nada. **gulp**

That's really scary.

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We released another butterfly yesterday. DD named this one "Fire". His birth and release were without mishap for a change. It's odd, though, how blasé we've become about the whole thing.

"Hey, hon? Here's a butterfly." Hands flapping critter to daughter. "Would you put it outside?"

DD trots it outside, puts it on a flower and comes back in to continue whatever she was doing.

I've lost count, but I think we have about 15 more to go. I expect the monarch eggs to show up next week, however. Then the hunt will be on, because you really need to find them as eggs -- they commit hari kari when you find them as babies. Seriously. Or maybe it's bungee jumping. If you startle a little monarch pillar, they leap off of their leaf! It's a defense mechanism, but can make finding the little ones tough. And they are highly parasitized, so bringing them in when they are larger can lead to heartbreak when you hatch a wasp instead of a butterfly...

Ah... the joy and heartbreak of Pillar Place 2008.

EDITED TO ADD: I just checked the pillar boxes, and we hatched THREE more this morning! The must have hatched fairly early, too, since two of them were already ready to fly. That leaves five more chrysalis' in the parsley box, and eight more in the dill box -- cool. We're almost done!

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