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I can't predict when I have the time to post a new blog, but check occasionally. I'm going to try at least weekly.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Feedback at last

Song of the day: …I’m not sure. I know I had a song in my head this morning but now, for the life of me, I can’t remember it. Strange. But anyway, yesterday’s song was this new song I heard on the radio: Iyaz with Replay. Very cute. Superficial as heck, but who cares anyway. It reminds me of “It wasn’t me” by Shaggy. Hah.

Had a decent night’s rest yesterday, meaning that I wasn’t tired for a change. Yep, miracles do happen. I managed to be in bed before one in the morning. Yay!

Okay, first thing’s first. I got my official editor’s report for Saving Nina yesterday, and though I almost had a heart attack reading the first few sentences, there was enough positive stuff in the report not to have me dissolve into a puddle of misery. Yep, they know their stuff well over there at the agency where they help struggling authors like myself. Throw in enough positive, otherwise we’ll never have a return customer. Hah. But anyway, the editor seemed to be on the up and up, pointing out a few holes I’d missed and a handful of I-don’t-get-thats which I’ll need to work on. The biggest “problem” the editor pointed out was the references to the past and future in the story, which is going to be a terrible pickle. It means I will have to expand stuff that is supposed to come out in the prequel and sequels, without wrecking the plot of the others. *Phew* At the moment, thinking of that seems like I have to climb the Mount Everest for crying out loud. Better not think of that yet, eh? I’ll get to that when I get to it, or something like that. Hah.
To remain positive. I got a good response to my dialogues, action sequences, sex scenes, and pacing…as to the rest…well, it’s work in progress, I guess. For the most part I'm just glad that we finally have some idea of what the problems might be.

But enough about that. I wrote two pages today of the new book, which isn’t altogether bad, considering I’ve been massively distracted lately. I’m going to have to fit in more writing sessions when I can, because we’ll be working at Liane’s again soon. Building a cabin, installing a boiler and taking the pool away for the winter. It’s going to take some time, in particular the cabin, because according to my memory, wherever it will be put, we’re going to have to even out the ground underneath.
Another Mount Everest there, considering tomorrow is the start of market weekend again. Piles up a bit, ya know. Which is ridiculous, of course. It’s not like it’s heavy or anything, it just seems that way sometimes.

Anyways…the past couple of days.
Yesterday morning, after the morning chores and feeding the dogs, big brother and I headed for town with both cars so we could drop the Land Rover off. The shop seemed awfully full, so I anticipated that they probably wouldn’t get to our car yet…which was the case. The day passed without a single call from the receptionist, darn it. No matter, though, seeing as we were incredibly busy anyway.
When I called this afternoon I was told that they were done (the receptionist checked while I was on the phone) and that I could come pick it up…without charge. A big relief that, what with all the extra costs lately, another bill would have meant involuntary organ donation, or something. Hah.

While big brother and grandpa finished the roof of Sally’s cabin, (gawd it looks cute now. I’ve got to take a picture to show it off) I worked at the big sawing table preparing small slats of hardwood slats that I need for the restoration of the Chinese boxes. Needed to saw about thirty of them, which caused some considerable sawdust EVERYWHERE, and numb ears by the time I finally finished. *sigh*

Had to take Knight II to the vet, yesterday as well as today because she wants to keep track of his healing. It’s looking good. If I manage, by some miracle to keep him from licking the darn thing to pieces again, might actually end up with a good foot again. *sigh* The male vet was there today, by the way. He’s not quite as experienced as our usual vet, seeing as he thought it enough to put one layer of bandage on Knight II’s paw, meaning that as soon as I got home (the darn denim sock had also come loose) I had to redo the whole darn thing and put tape around it all to boot, just to keep the lot in place again. Luckily he allows it.

Knight II has been seeing a lot of civilization lately, by the way. What with me having to keep an eye on his paw, he’s going along practically everywhere (he won’t tomorrow and the day after, so big brother will have to keep an eye out) and is getting all the attention he ever wanted…or in his case not. Poor fella’s so scared, he’ll be shivering as soon as someone even looks at him, my poor darling. But he’s a hit at the garage, at the mall, and basically anywhere whenever folks see him. In fact, I’m a little afraid to walk by the street with him, seeing as folks in their car will actually look back while they’re behind the wheel. Makes me scared that the sight of him will cause an accident, or something.

As to the vet…the bills are mounting, considering both Djammi and Djoti had to go to the vet yesterday, too. *sigh* Ergo the reason for taking that extra work with building a cabin and installing a boiler.

Weather wise we’ve been having some rain during the evening and night. Nothing too impressive, just wetness, which, on the overall is a good thing for as far as we’re concerned…except that we won’t be able to go to market if it rains tomorrow. But the locals are saying that the worst of it is over now that the winds have changed, so in all likelihood we’ll be heading out tomorrow. Darn! Hah.

What else? Well, I’m still experimenting with the leather branding for the Tika Art purses. Got some nice ones going for sure, but we’re going to have to see if they go at all.
Tenant is spending a lot of time with mom down in the main house, so that’s freeing up a lot of our time. Considering she loves watching the younger sibs and mom work inside (makes her feel closer to it, I think) it works out well for everyone.

There was a cooking session, first making pattie dough this morning so we’d have food tomorrow at the market, and then tonight, after coming home from a long day in town (picking up the car, sending out a big package in the mail, looking for a particularly wonky battery for a Mac computer picking up a large donation of apples, 150 pots of tomato sauce, and, hold onto your socks, four massive chocolate mousse cakes…which the dogs can’t eat, of course, but us…jeez!) a nice batch of pumpkin to cover the patties with. Very tasty. And then the chocolate cake as dessert…not bad. Hah. That’s the first time we got something that we couldn’t resist using ourselves.

While cousin Ed and big brother loaded up the car for tomorrow, I rushed to the vet with Knight, dealt with the necessary bits and then went back home for supper and to sit down for the first time today. *sigh*

That’s it for now. I’m going to try for an early night, seeing as it looks like things are going to be busy in the near future. I’ll be back on Monday…I hope. Hah.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

The Knight

Song of the day: “Waka waka” by Shakira. Fun little song, but strangely enough I like the live version better than the radio version.

Not a lot of writing for me the past couple of days, but not nothing either. Got the new book up to 18 pages now (almost 6000 words) so that’s not bad. Characters are solidifying a little by now. The “nemesis” is starting to come across as a stick in the mud and my heroine somewhat confrontational. Who’d have thunk it. Hah.

So let’s start with the big news. Yesterday, after a long day (I’ll get to that later) I came home, rushed to the bathroom in my cabin, and by the time I got back out, stopped dead in my tracks to stare at the large amount of blood on one of my chairs. Dax was on top of it, licking it up as fast as he could manage it, looking unharmed. “Who the heck’s bleeding?” I muttered, looking from the Beagle to Chaos (no gushing ears, or anything) and the two labs. Nothing wrong there. Like Dax they’re licking at the blood that (so I discovered then) is also all over the floor. “Jeez! Sitabah where--“ She’s on the second chair, licking the spray of blood that’s on the clothes chest in the center of the room. Nothing with her either. Knight…
“Knight where are you. I--“ that’s when I see it. His problem paw (chronic wound that has been refusing to heal properly for three years now ever since our previous vet thought it a good idea to check if there was anything in the swollen appendage. Bad idea.) the one he is always licking, is stretched out on my bed, gushing, spraying and fountaining, while Knight is almost lazily licking up the blood.
I swear in several language, call for big brother while I reach in my upper storage for my first aid kit. I’m so lucky I came across it the day before when I was looking for something else, and start ripping out the contents with one hand, while with the other I call grandpa because I know that big brother won’t be able to hear me outside.
“Knight’s gushing blood. Tell big brother to get the car out and then come and help me get this stupid dog up.” And then, while telling Knight he’s an idiot to his face, I dig into the bloody sheets for his paw, and quickly start wrapping it around the spritzing wound.
Big brother arrives while I hear Cousin Ed take out the Land Rover for us, looks down with a shake of his head and says, “What did he try to do, amputate his foot?”
“Looks like it,” I mutter, fighting a wave of nausea as I tighten the bandage a bit more around Knight’s paw. He’s watching me with interest all the while, not helping much by letting me pull his paw higher, but I soon have the friggin’ wound covered with two tight bandages that are still showing blood through the many, many layers.
I don’t care. At least it’s not spritzing by then. I walk him up, into the car and we’re off, some odd fifteen minutes before opening time (siesta time is still normal round these parts. Smalls stores, and the vet hospital, are closed from two to five). No sense in breaking the speed limit on our way to the village. The bleeding appears under control and no one will be there anyway.
By the time we arrive so’s the nurse who opens the door for me and then heads to the back to do some preparations.
I sit down, Knight in my lap because he’s insecure away from home and decides it’s a good idea to attach himself to me. We wait some odd twenty minutes, seeing as there are other patients and then the new vet gestures me to come to the back so he can do the preliminary examination.
I am forced to inform him that Knight has trouble with men (always had, ever since I rescued him from the pound at six months) meaning that the poor man is doubly cautious (not to mention sick as a dog) and makes as little startling movements as possible. Between the two of us, with me holding Knight’s head tight against my shoulder, we get the sedation into this vein, and less than half a minute later Knight starts to sag to the floor. Poor darling went down like a log.
What followed was a discussion of how to handle the problem. The bandage was removed and blood oozed out again, so here’s what the vet said: Either they cauterized the wounds, bound it all up ad we’d have to keep the lot clean and bandaged for a solid month and a half, hoping it would heal. Or she cut everything open, took out the dead flesh, cauterized the veins and then sewed him up, meaning that with a little luck he’d be rid of his stitches within two weeks.
Though it took some thought, seeing as I don’t like putting him through surgery, I went for the last option.
Big brother arrived, and I helped him lift Knight onto the small exam table (OR was in use for another three hours, they told me, so we had to do it the old-fashioned way) where the vet and nurse started to do their thing. They opted to go for light sedation, me basically lying on top of his head kept him quiet for some reason, and local anesthetic on the foot itself. More blood gushed while she put the needle in over and over again, and then, using scissors of all things, she started cutting away the old nerveless flesh that wouldn’t allow for them to stitch him up.
They took out round disk of flesh half an inch thick and about a couple of inches in diameter, while I squatted at the dog’s head and whispered softly in his ear because that kept him from moving around. The few times I HAD to move, his head would lurch up so he would be able to find me. *sigh*

Here are some pix of the ordeal.

Cutting out callous-like material so they would have enough skin to close it. Utterly gross. I couldn't help but watch.


Cauterizing the wound, which filled the room with the faint scent of burning flesh.


My poor darling at home, tired and shivering, pressing his head onto my knee. Isn't he sweet? *rolls eyes*



But anyway, about two hours later, Knight’s paw bandaged up, we were back on our way home, where mom made a denim “sock” which we could pull over the bandage so he wouldn’t be able to touch the wound the way he will so much like to do in the near future.
No collar cone for the Knight. Remember the tail debacle? The foot when it first started? Gawd between those two occasions, I think he wrecked more than eight of the blasted things. At one point he discovered that if he slammed them against a wall corner, or a doorpost, it would just break. *sigh* I don’t even want to know through how much duct tape I went back then.

But anyway, on to other stuff.
Been doing some experimenting with burning patterns into leather for the Tika art bags, and so far it appears to be working. Got some nice patterns at the moment, two of which have already been used in purses.

My eye was half shut yesterday morning (this morning too for that matter), and caused me one heck of a headache through most of the day. Jeez. It got so bad even that while we were jogging, later in the evening, I chucked up my supper. *sigh* Stupid stomach. The jog was nice though, regardless of the cold…temps have been dropping drastically these past few days. Low sixties during the night, I tell ya.

There were the normal stuff, ya know. Laundry, feeding the dogs, cutting dog food and all that jazz, but I’m happy to announce that we did manage to work on Sally’s roof, finishing it. Good thing too since the weather channel is announcing lotsa rain this weekend. Who knows, I might even get a reprieve from the market thing because of that. No one’s going to turn up at a 2nd hand market on a rainy day. Hah.

Yesterday morning was spent in the town, where we had to wait for our regular mechanic to turn up so he could check up on the Opel. I’ve still been catching the occasional scent of fumes in the back, but since he couldn’t find any leaks, he thinks that it is most likely just the valve that allows gasses to drift from the fuel tank. *Phew* Big relief there. Nothing too serious. Good thing too, seeing as we have an appointment for the Land Rover tomorrow. And an appointment at the vet. And a charity pick up. *quadruple sigh*

There were a couple of cooking sessions. Plenty of food to go round. Yesterday fresh cauliflower with baked macaroni and baked panneer. It was delicious. Today, on the other hand, with tenant’s help since she cut most of everything, I made mashed potato and carrots for supper today. To me today went down better. Love the taste of this meal.

Added to working on the roof of Sally’s cabin, I also spent some time by the sawing machine, cutting more than thirty slats for the beautiful boxes I am repairing. They’re covered with a hard Chinese/Japanese painting layers, meaning it is going to take some work to get them the way I want them. Have decided to use red hardwood, which isn’t as easy to work with as I’d like.

Well, time for bed for me. It’s been a long day and I’ve just about had it.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Weekend market

Song of the day: “The Banana Boat Song” by Harry Belafonte. Still love that one, and it is entertaining to have tumbling around in my head.

Ah, the weekend. Though I am clearly on a weekend break for the blog these days, those very days are so busy that I doubt I’d even have the time to write the darn thing. Hah.
So yeah, Saturday morning. *sigh* It was still dark when I woke from the alarm. Don’t you just hate winter? The days get to be so friggin’ short, darn it. But anyway, twilight took about fifteen minutes to arrive before I’d taken care of the morning rituals and shuffled down to the courtyard. Once there I stopped dead in my tracks and look up at the pool. Arms filled with towel and outfit for the day I debated a full washing session in the shower, or a quick wake-up dip in the pool…I went for the latter. Seriously, showering takes soooo long, and I liked the idea of speed so much that I didn’t even mind that the pool water is greener than a frog. Hah. Almost forgot my coffee again, rushed through breakfast (grandpa made pancakes) were on our way…and had to go right back because both Cousin Ed and I forgot our phone. Ran down to my cabin, back up again and headed out. Yay.
Arrived only five minutes late and started to set up. We had more with us this time, so it took us at least two hours to set up. So hard to set things up in a way that I liked it. Strange how one day from the other different colorschemes go, eh. But anyway, it all looked nice and such, we managed to fit everything in, and when we discovered we forgot pen and paper, the nice lady who organizes the market offered to print our “discount” and “reserved” cards for us.

Not a very busy day, though there was some attention for both Tika Art and my tie dyes. In fact, we sold three of them, which was nice to see. A good place for tie dye, I tell ya. All that beach stuff, eh? Also sold a toy monkey. Was so cute to see the little boy run around with it through the remainder of the afternoon. Wrapped around his neck and head, dangling down his chest. He looked proud as heck. Hah.

I took an hour and a half in the afternoon to withdraw to the restaurant and do some writing. Went rather well, actually. Managed to write down a solid five pages where it became clear that my heroine used to be a Trekie in her tweens, doesn’t like authority, and that my “bad guy” military dude has a new assistant he needs to “break in”. Life is just full of surprises, isn’t it?

The lady who’d made the order the previous week, came to pick up her dog bed. Turns out something went wrong with the order. She wanted a square, not a rectangular bed, but she took it regardless. Later she came back with the intention of having us put aside one of the big beds (she wanted to gift it to her mom) for next week, or the week thereafter. Since that was a pretty steep order, I decided to give her a break and offered to take back the “wrong” bed, so mom could make a new one for her with the right sizes and the silver she kept insisting on.
The bed that was made was gorgeous enough for me to be confident that we’ll be able to sell it at some point regardless.

On the overall the market went well, and by the time we’d packed up again it was close to six in the afternoon. There was a bit of a rush to get home where the younger sibs are undoubtedly waiting to pack up for the Sunday Market. We unloaded our half, and started packing the Opel with wagon for the Sunday market at Funny Beach Marbella, this time with a lot less merchandise, since the amounts are halved, and the gaps filled with second hand stuff like baby clothes and such.

I have been using an occasional half hour here and there to read a review book. This time Adam Siffre with “I’ve been deader”. It’s seriously whacky, and fun to read…I just don’t have much time for it lately. *sigh*

But anyway, I was in bed at one, passed out, and was startled awake seven fifteen when it was time to get up for the Sunday market. Yay. There was the coffee bit, the breakfast, and off we were, once more, only to discover that the market soap had started. Other stand folks had gotten upset that the organizer hadn’t informed them beforehand that she wanted to relocate them to a different spot. Turns out they got our stand, meaning that we got relocated instead, because she figured we wouldn’t hassle her. We didn’t, of course, because it was a nice challenge to see if we could make this stand look good too. We could. But it’s a lucky thing that it was the Sunday market and not the Saturday market, because seriously, carrying the big load that far would have been nothing less than a massive biatch. Hah.

But here are some pix for both days. See for yourself.

Saturday



This one too. We had a crooked Z.


Sunday


And this will be our stand next week. (Cute, eh?)


It's to make up (I think) for the misunderstanding with the stand, and otherwise...well, it'll be fun anyway.
My head is already busy setting everything in place. Hah. I’m bonkers that way. But I tell ya. When I was a kid, I had fantasies of setting up the windows in a shop. I’m getting all the freedom I need to live out that little fantasy.

But anyway, we’ll see about that next week. Until then…my head better shut up.

Leaving Cousin Ed in charge of the stand I headed out to Benahavis again to check out that market there…I didn’t like it. Not as a artsy thing anyway, which is basically what the Tika art stuff is. Benahavis, though paradise for the bargain hunter like myself (got two pants for 2 bucks, a skirt for 1 buck, and two books for 1, yay) is not suited for the dog beds and quilts. I chatted with several stand holders (pumped them for information while purchasing my books and pants) who informed me that even though the sales are pretty good, you’ll be lucky to sell everything that costs more than 3 bucks. *sigh* Not a celebrity in sight either…or maybe I just didn’t see them searching for bargains. LOL
Good thing I like Funny Beach, so far…heck, we even had music yesterday. Hah.

On the way back, something flew in my eye, still don’t know what, and arrived two and half hours after departure back at the stand.
But anyway, we ended the day having sold several baby clothes, and one of the Tika art purses. We offered to pay at least half of the two days, but the organizer said that we might as well agree that for as long as the market doesn’t go extremely well yet, we’re not paying them for the stand. I like that to pay my way, but I’m not stupid. That money is needed for our four legged palls after all.

Loading went a lot faster this time too, seeing as we could load everything up into the wagon rather than having to bring it all to the car and do that there. Rather good that, otherwise we would have had to do that with a wheelbarrow and our backs. *sigh*

Once at home it was time to unload (with some help from the younger sibs), get some dinner (big brother made mac & cheese with some veggies) some chats online, followed by a very late jog because I really had to unwind. Jeez. Then, of course, I put on my wrong sneakers (the ones with the rounded soles) meaning that my jogging was limited to say the least. *double sigh*

My dogs are feeling a little neglected at the moment, my poor darlings. Knight II is trying to eat my clothes, Chaos is peeing in the cabin (and I think he has a bladder infection, so I need to keep an eye on that) and the rest…well, they’re just acting all hurt and such. They know how to play it well, I assure you. I feel very guilty.

Came home to pass out and slept almost through ‘til nine in the morning. Yay. My eye’s a little swollen and hurts like heck, but it’s still there, so, that’s a-okay then. Hah.
Spent the morning on the normal chores, feeding the dogs, breakfast and helping tenant before she went down to spend the afternoon with mom. Then I washed both the cars, because it was starting to get embarrassing to travel in them, at which point I had to help big brother set the poles by Sally’s cabin for the wooden barrier we’re planning to place there while grandpa made pancakes for lunch.

That done, we headed or town to do some groceries for mom and the sibs and speak with mechanic about the leak we found under the car. Apparently it has something to do with that problem we had the last time. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed it’s not serious...but then knowing my luck lately, it will be. Aaaargh. We have an appointment on Thursday, and since I still smelled the petrol fumes in the back of the Opel we decided to drive by tomorrow with that so he could check if it was all okay.

Once at home, the groceries unpacked the end of the day arrived. Made spaghetti and sauce (half of it, anyway, cousin Ed finished it.) There was still dog food to chop, but it went well. Wrote about half a page of the book (seeing as my concentration was shot today) and then started on the blog. I’ve gotta go. I need sleep and my eye still hurts like heck. Grrr.