Recapitulate

I'm going to try to post, but the way Pan is meowing already, I may end up like I did the other night:

It's not his favorite way to sleep, but a cat makes do.

Even that's better than what he did one night last week, when I was proofing my post, and he stepped on the mouse and managed to hit the "publish post" button, I swear--yes, my cat can work Blogger, do you think they want to put him in an ad? Fortunately, I was done writing, and nothing embarrassing got posted; just imagine if a shitty first draft* went up? I heard an author on NPR this week refer to the Internet as a roach motel, in that information goes in and doesn't come out. (He was asked once in an interview how many words constitute a good number for him to write in a day, and he said 500, but it was put down as 15, so now he's constantly correcting that, though apparently the Germans in particular are really impressed with the 15 idea.)

*In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott writes about shitty first drafts, and how when she starts something it's always so bad that she's convinced that if she's hit by a bus before she finishes it, her family will find it and decide that she threw herself in front of the bus because she couldn't write anything better.

Then there was the night (he's had a busy week, really, for a cat) when he leaned on the keyboard and suddenly he was contributing to the content (don't be too impressed, it was gibberish), and when I protested, he got up suddenly (he doesn't take criticism well), and knocked a little bowl I had on the table onto the floor, so now it's cracked. A bowl I bought on a trip to Norway, and am therefore rather fond of.

I was quite upset with him at the time, though my sense of humor, or at least resignation, has somewhat reverted in the interim. I'm now reminded of the cartoon where the child breaks something, the parent cries out "Can't I have anything nice?!", and the last panel is the child, in time-out, musing on the definition of 'rhetorical question'.

And another thing I'd like to say, do you have any idea how much chocolate the pollen made me eat yesterday?

Whew. The thing is, I've had a pollen ball lodged in my throat for about four days now, cough, cough, ahem, hack (excuse me). Having a hard candy or something ... something ... in my mouth means I'm less likely to cough. And, well, chocolate-covered raisins, purchased earlier in the week for their PMS-banishing powers, and their fruit-ness*, do go down nicely. And since the instant one is gone, I cough again, and cough and cough, I went through a lot.

Quite a lot.

*It's fruit, it's good for me! Right? Health food, almost.

Ahem. This has nothing to do with anything. I just thought I'd share that. I've found cough drops help, too. If it would just rain and wash some of the damn pollen away, maybe that would help. Moving on.

So, I have looked at Knitting Culture, and it's way, way cool! (If you don't know, Annalea is trying to put together the accounts of the Yarn Harlot's appearances, and the amazing turnouts she gets, and in particular the numbers she gets at places that aren't prepared for it, to try and Do Something About It. Is that an accurate summary?) I had never heard of Squidoo: ah, this wild and crazy Internet! There's so much there.

I just submitted my blog post about the Represent event I went to in March to it (my security check word was dogsquid, does that strike anyone but me as odd?). Fortunately for my local Borders event, since the manager is One Of Us, I don't think we're going to need to force them to look at it, but I think it will be a great thing to have for other events and purposes, so good going, Annalea!

About my most recent Borders visit, I actually didn't buy anything for myself yesterday, but the new Laurell K. Hamilton comes out next week, so I pretty much know I have a treat coming soon (I can't resist Anita Blake for very long). I was shopping for my cousin's son, who turns 4 next week, and I bought the cutest picture book. If you know someone who likes books with few words (or has a short attention span), take a look at this next time you're in a store:

"Why are you sitting in a box?"

"It's not a box."


Way too cute. I hope he likes it.

And Annalea? First, of course you can link to my blog. The only people not welcome to link to me would be anyone who started the link by saying something like "have you ever heard anything this stupid". Second, fifty hits a day is awesome, m'dear, from where I'm sitting. Don't knock yourself, the world is far too quick to do that to us.

Now, about the tree pictures, Monica, I don't know what it is, but one of my coworkers (the tree is at work) was saying something about what it might be , so I'll ask her what it was she thought, and report back. It is pretty, isn't it?


About the catnip, by the way, last year one of my coworkers innocently planted a "catmint" plant in her home garden, and a few days later it was completely flattened by neighborhood cats. I'd never heard of catmint, but apparently it's all in the family.

I have a late night tonight. My friend's husband does improv, and a couple of us are going to a late show tonight. I don't usually stay up so late, and I must admit I'm yawning a bit already. But I expect I'll get a second wind, and he's such a funny guy, it will totally be worth it. I have to go stuff my pockets with cough drops now, though. Effing pollen...