MissMeliss: Escribition

My brother-in-law, well, Fuzzy’s brother-in-law, really, – his sister’s husband – died shortly after midnight on Wednesday morning. He was a vibrant, kind, funny person, who always made me laugh. He was a good partner to my sister-in-law, a wonderful father, and while no one is perfect, he was a truly good man.
He [...]

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”
– Virginia Woolf
In December, I lost my job. Again. Sort of. It’s kind of the job that won’t die, in the sense that the payment arrangements keep changing, but the job only changes slightly. At the moment, it’s [...]

It’s cold in Texas this week, and I don’t mean “cold for Texas” when we complain about having to wear real shoes or long sleeve shirts, I mean seriously cold. The desktop weather gadget on my iPhone claims it’s currently 24 degrees, and we’re supposed to drop below 20 sometime between now and dawn. All [...]

I’ve always said that I thrive on challenge, but an assignment I received last week for the QN podcast nearly pushed me to the limit, not because it was unreasonable, but because I’m in one of those scheduling black holes where no matter what I do I’m constantly running behind.
The assignment in question was [...]

It’s a good thing they don’t make cheap term life insurance for dogs, because if they did, my chihuahua would be cashing his in today. Why? Because it hasn’t even been 24 hours since the carpets were cleaned, and he’s already made a mess in the bedroom.
Worse, he was smug about it, in that [...]

Some people like flipping through travel magazines and dreaming of Gatlinburg vacations, but one of my favorite things to do is flip through home decor catalogs and dream about what I’d do to my house if I had an infinite amount of time, patience, and money.
Two days ago, one of my favorite catalogs – [...]

The 4th of July was lovely, except that I’m apparently allergic to watermelon now, but I woke up the next morning nursing a migraine, and generally cross because of the clouds that utterly refused to produce any decent rain. (Around midnight we got a steady sprinkle, but that’s about it.)
Of course, just before bed, [...]

I Feel Like a Stereotype
I have spent the last hour or so – I kid you not – packing Fuzzy’s suitcase for his trip to Boca Raton in the morning.
I feel like some kind on 1950’s tv wife. Except I’m wearing sweats and I have blue hair, instead of doing this while wearing [...]

“Lovey!” Fuzzy called in his panicked tone, as he entered the house last night. (It should be noted, however that Fuzzy, aka Stoic!Boy, is a midwesterner, and therefore his panicked tone is only fractionally different from his normal voice.) “Lovey, we need to talk about the car.”
This is not the way to begin a conversation, [...]

A couple of months ago in the grocery store, I noticed a display of teak patio furniture including a storage bench with a padded seat. I have no need for teak furniture outside (though I love it) but I wanted the bench very badly, to put in my foyer, against the stairs.
Sadly, we vacillated and [...]