Our cat, Ellie, died this week.  She was old and we saw it coming.  She was a pain in the ass from day one but she was our pain in the ass.  She purred louder than any cat I've known.  She bit people.  She bit us.  She bit our houseguests.   And drew blood.  She was not angry or abused.  She was crazy.  Our home won't be the same.

I heart Will Ferrell.

http://pol.moveon.org/insurance_execs/?id=17290-6791979-eRiHfVx&t=2

 Here's an easy way to get a large corporation to give to a deserving cause.

From now through May 25, you can help support the American Red Cross in another way—just by logging in, or signing up, to Facebook.

Target is giving away $3 million to 10 charities later this month through its ‘Bullseye Gives’ program. And they’re leaving it up to you to decide how much money they give each charity, through votes on Target’s Facebook page. The more votes we get, the more funding we receive to help people who need immediate relief and lifesaving assistance—in our community, across the country and around the world.

Vote for the Red Cross now, by going to: http://www.redcross.org/facebook

The best part is, you can vote once every 24 hours until May 25. So for the next 11 days, you’ll have the chance to support disaster victims, blood donation drives, military families, lifesaving training and all the rest of the Red Cross’s work—with just a few clicks of your mouse.

It’s all at no cost to you—your vote = your gift!

Please vote and spread the word to your friends and family.

From quietspaces 

Now, when someone (anyone) says, "Take me to your leader," you know they mean me.  'Cause heaven knows I'm not in charge of anything now.

You Are An ENTJ

The Executive You are a natural leader - with confidence and strength that inspires others. Driven to succeed, you are always looking for ways to gain, power, knowledge, and expertise. Sometimes you aren't the most considerate person, especially to those who are a bit slow. You are not easily intimidated - and you have a commanding, awe-inspiring presence. In love, you hold high standards... for yourself, for your relationship, and for your significant other. While it's easy for you to impress others, it's hard for you to find someone who impresses you. At work, you are organized and good at delegating. You understand how to achieve goals. You would make a great CEO, entrepreneur, or consultant. How you see yourself: Rational, calm, and objective When other people don't get you, they see you as: Inflexible, controlling, and overbearing

The date is 3/14, get it?  One of my mother's favorite funnies was to say, "Pie are not square.  Pie are round."  My favorite pie is blackberry, especially with vanilla ice cream on the side.  What's yours?

Enjoy this tribute to pi. 

See the pretty house below. It belongs to my baby sis, Cathy Horner. Some of you know Cathy. My younger friends may know her as Tassie, a baby name given her by my son, Brian, when he was a little guy. Here's the thing. Cathy is a finalist in a contest. The winner gets her house painted, as well as a few extra bucks for fix up. Cathy bought her 19th Century lovely all on her own last year. She has sunk about as much money into it as she can at this point. And it is still yellow. With an orange roof. The Ronald McDonald House.  (I'm teasing, Tass.  I love your house.)

Cathy is not rich or well-off or whatever term you might use for being financially flush. She's a musician and an artist of the starving variety.  And a much nicer person than I can ever hope to be.  How about lending a hand to somebody who is way overdue for a break?

Vote here for the Johnson City, TN home of Cathy Horner.  It just takes a second and you'll be helping a deserving artist and an all 'round good person.  Thanks.

PS--Feel free to link.  The more the merrier!

Grab the book nearest you. Right now. Turn to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post that sentence along with these instructions in your LiveJournal. Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

"The old dismal anger."

Uh, that's not a sentence. Does it count?

From DUMA KEY by Stephen King.

I got it for Christmas and haven't read it yet but I looked and there are whole sentences in there.

I found myself on the front porch after the latest nap. I don't expect much traffic mid-day on the country lane where I live but the late day return home should be in full swing. Is there a holiday I missed? The neighbors seem to be out in their yards. I don't hear lawn mowers or the voices and music that go with a backyard barbecue. They just seem to be wandering around. Some of them are walking in the road. That's not safe. Cars come around that corner fast.

What's Mr. Crane doing in my front yard? I think I'll stroll down and ask him.

Just came in from sitting out on the deck. That's all I do lately: sit on the deck, take a nap, sit on the front porch, take a nap, sit in the living room... you get the idea. Once again, the cosmos has crapped on my head. After an adult lifetime of eating whole grains and bean sprouts and exercising whether I liked it or not, my genes served me up a big serving of whoop ass in the form of a heart attack two weeks ago.

So instead of joining the exodus of country commuters in the mornings, I sit on the deck and watch them go. Except this morning, I've seemed to have missed them. No cars, no school buses, just the tweeting and chirping of the birds, the back and forth coos of the mourning doves, and the hungry, plaintive mooing of the cows carried on the humid air for miles. Somebody should have fed them by now.

Something's going on across the road. Through the trees in my yard, I can see the evergreens in back of my neighbor's lawn. It looks like a woman in a nightgown looking for something. Can't tell who it is. I'll call over there and see if everything's okay.

Funny.

At least I'm far far away from the trouble in the city.

I'll be heading out to Salt Lake City at Oh-God-Thirty Thursday morning for the World Horror Convention. I'll be traveling with my daughter, Becky, who is now 18 and old enough (I hope.) We're rooming with my long-time roomie and friend, Karen Taylor.

I haven't signed up to do a lot. Mostly Persephone Writers Organization activities. Thursday evening at 8:00, we have a panel in a game show format. Male or Female? Contestants will guess if horror readings were written by male or female authors. (I'll be game show host, er, moderator.) Friday morning at 9 am, there is a members-only Persephone meeting, followed by an open-to-everyone social at 10:00.

I'll also be participating in the Mass Autograph Signing on Friday at 8 pm.

That's it. If you're going to be at WHC, look for me in the bar and stop to say hello.

Hope everyone had a wonderful day, whether or not you celebrate the holiday. We had much food



and frivolity.

http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b340/bferrenz/?action=view¤t=MVI_3419.flv.

I don't usually make political posts.  Maybe I should.  This is a public forum read by one or two people, who might just share the anger and frustration I feel about the actions of President Bush and his cronies in the White House.

So, tag, you're it.  Pass it on.

Quoted from suricattus with her permission and encouragement:

from the AP newswire...

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday acknowledged publicly for the first time that someone in his administration likely leaked the name of a CIA operative, although he also said he hopes the controversy over his decision to spare prison for a former White House aide has "run its course."

"And now we're going to move on," Bush said in a White House news conference.


Uh-huh. Yeah, suuuuuure it has. Suuuuure we are. Careful, Georgie, I think some of that fairy sparkle-dust got up your nose as well as in your eyes...

BITCHSLAP!


When Stupid and Arrogant collide in one mouth, there's a bitchslap just waiting to appear...

And Nick reminds us:

  "I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by
  exposing the name of [CIA] sources. They are, in my view, the most
  insidious, of traitors." - ex-president George H.W. Bush, April 26, 1999

I wonder, if we got organized, if we could all post that everywhere, blogs and LJs and whatnot, all at the same time...  if we can all be zombified for a day, surely taking a chunk out of George shouldn't be so hard....

has more than one meaning for me.  Don't say it too loud but I actually have the house to myself this morning.  Brian is visiting his mother.  Becky is gone for two weeks at what she calls fish camp but is actually a marine biology research course.  And the newest addition to the family, a friend of Becky's whose parents gave him the boot with very little provocation, is at work.  (We call him Other Son.)  Since Brian retired last year, being home alone is a rare luxury.

What shall I do with this (temporary) freedom?  Well, obviously, I blog.  There are chores to be done but I'm about chored out.  We de-junked the basement and garage this week.  I'll probably take my cup of coffee and a book out to the front porch where there are a cushioned rocking chair and a cool breeze with my name on them.

I still have a couple of big chores to finish before I can settle into any sustained writing this summer.  I'm done with the school job until the middle of August and my practice has slowed to a dribble.  I think I'll start writing in the office on the third floor for privacy.  I'm one of those writers who needs silence when I write.  No music.  Don't talk to me.  Don't come into the room to get something.  Sh.

I have a couple of trips to the Ferrenz family beach house planned.  The first is the annual Girls Week At The Beach with Becky.  We've been doing this since she was three.  (She's almost eighteen now.)  The second is a mini writers retreat with tina_jens.  Last April, she and I went to my family's house in the mountains for a mini retreat.  It was really cold and we ran out of firewood and the water heater wasn't heating water.  Troopers that we are, we went outside and collected firewood and we heated water on the stove for washing up.  I wanted to go out and kill a squirrel with my bare hands for dinner but we found a nice Mexican restaurant in town instead.  The really good news is that I was able to determine why my novel was spinning its wheels and going nowhere.  I got out of the ditch and took off down the highway.  I stepped on the gas and didn't touch the brakes on the curves.  I turned on the radio and sang loud and offkey.  I opened the windows and accidently swallowed a bug.  I ... okay, I'll stop.

Happy Fourth of July, everybody!  May all Americans (especially the politicians) embrace the democracy that we celebrate today.

Last night, Brian, Becky, and I saw Shakespeare's The Tempest in an open air theatre.  My comfortable lawn chair and the stars overhead let me forget I was in suburban Maryland.  I was on the island with Prospero and Miranda.  The bamboo sticks and waves of blue fabric really were a ship on a stormy sea.  That was until the numnutz behind me started to talk.  He mostly repeated the lines after the actors, making it impossible for me to hear the next one.  Or he commented, "Nicely done," and other assessments after a scene.  When I turned around to give him the evil eye, I saw he was a well-dressed middle-aged man.  My guess is that he was a high school English teacher or theatre director, trying to impress everyone around him with his oneness with Bill Shakespeare.  Dirty looks didn't stop him.  Even the idiots who brought a baby with them or left their cellphones on stopped.  Not the professor.

Numnutz!  If you were at the Olney Shakespeare Festival last night, center row, near the aisle, in front of the bleachers, yeah, I'm talking about you!  Shut up or stay home.  All of those people looking at you were not impressed that you could repeat dialogue nor did they care that you thought the scene was nicely done.  If you'd whispered, it would have been a little less offensive.  Maybe you should suffer the fate of Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo.

Go, charge my goblins that they grind their joints

With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews

With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make them

Than pard, or cat o' mountain.

I make it to the theatre once or twice a year.  I live out in the country, so it's always a long trek and a special treat.  I've become accustomed to rude behavior in movie theatres.  Brian won't go to the movies anymore because of it.  Please, bad-mannered people, don't ruin this for me, too.  (The play was very good, by the way.  It's playing tonight and Friday through Sunday next weekend.  Highly recommended.)

From quietspaces
Because I said I would and I want to see her responses.  (Hi, Liz!)  See mine on her lj.  Who else will dare to complete the Meme of Disclosure?  Moo-hahahah!

IF YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, I want to know 28 things about you (or however many you can be bothered filling in!) I don't care if we've never talked, never liked each other, or if we already know everything about each other. I really don't. You are obviously on my flist, so let me know with whom I'm friends!

1. Your Middle Name:
2. Age:
3. Single or Taken:
4. Favourite Movie:
5. Favourite Song or Album:
6. Favourite Band/Artist:
7. Dirty or Clean:
8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:
9. Do we know each other outside of LJ?
10. What's your philosophy on life?
11. Is the bottle half-full or half-empty?
12. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
13. What is your favourite memory of us?
14. What is your favourite guilty pleasure?
15. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
16. You can have three wishes (for yourself, so forget all the 'world peace etc' malarky) - what are they?
17. Can we get together and make a cake?
18. Which country is your spiritual home?
19. What is your big weakness?
20. Do you think I'm a good person?
21. What was your best/favourite subject at school?
22. Describe your accent
23. If you could change anything about me, would you?
24. What do you wear to sleep?
25. Trousers or skirts?
26. Cigarettes or alcohol?
27. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
28. Will you repost this so I can fill it out for you?

I knew it could happen!  Samuel would never lie to me!