Stepping outside to chaperone my dog in his nightly business (he's afraid of the various creatures in the yard), I noticed the neighbor's pool light was flickering through the softly moving trees that follow the fence, giving our pool some privacy.

Our friend the orb weaver had anchored his web (I've decided that this smaller spider is male because it does reckless things like spinning a web over the pool.) across the yard again, and it was backlit, and beautiful, but the trees are so low, that I couldn't get behind it to take a picture without seriously scary things potentially landing in my hair. (I'm such a girl sometimes.)

Still, painted soft gold from the neighbor's light it was a beautiful thing to see.

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Janet turned me on to the August Happiness challenge, in which one posts one thing that made them happy, each day.

Today, I'm posting two:

1 August: Found out my “Blood Sisters” piece was in ATG, which I wasn't expecting to see until the 15th.

2 August: Heard from the mother and aunt of the friend in the story that they both really loved it.

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Her first love letter, as it turned out, came not on stationery at all, but on a post-it note. “I like you. Meet me in the break room.”

She went to the meeting with no expectations, but left with a smile.

Her second love letter came on a 3×5 card.

“Great things come in small packages.”

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This is not the piece that won the Toasted Cheese contest, but one that I thought wasn't coming out for another two weeks.

Should you be interested in a bit of “creative non-fiction,” the latest issue of All Things Girl has my piece “Blood Sisters”.

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Borrowed from

You scored as Mermaid. Mermaid: Mermaids are also known as Sirens. These creatures were beautiful women who tricked sailors into becoming completely entranced by their haunting voices and found death soon after. Not all stories of Mermaids are about gentle loving sea people. They are mystical, magical, and extremely dangerous. They have a way about them that brings anyone they are around to seem enchanted. They are very mysterious creatures and to meet one… Would mean certain Death. Let the song of the Sea fill your soul, for you are a Mermaid. Mermaid 100% Faerie 83% Angel 75% WereWolf 50% Dragon 34% Demon 8%

What Mythological Creature are you? (Cool Pics!)
created with QuizFarm.com

You would think that I'd have managed this much sooner, as we've been in Texas almost a year now, but it was only today that I managed to make it to DMV while they were open AND their computers were working.

I feel oddly disconnected from myself, as if, in turning in a piece of ID declaring me a Californian, in exchange a piece of ID labelling me a Texan, my actual IDENTITY has changed. (Will my (subconscious) natural mimickry manifest itself in a twang now?)

On the other hand, I'm now the proud owner of a local library card.

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From an email received approximately half an hour ago:

Congratulations Melissa!

I'm pleased to inform you that your story, “Crossing the Mojave,” has placed
first in Toasted Cheese's A Midsummer Tale Writing Contest.

“Crossing the Mojave” will be published in the September issue of Toasted
Cheese.

Toasted Cheese is a literary journal and writers forum. I'll post the link to the actual story when it comes out.

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Because sometimes I like to be snarky, but it's a tone that doesn't mesh well with this blog, and because I've been encouraged to let my dark side out to play a bit, I've started yet another blog. LiveJournal folk will notice that as of yesterday, it's the new blog that is feeding to , which means that hey, you're not getting duplicates of this stuff!

Whether you read LJ or NOT, however, I invite you to take a dip into Snark Infested Waters. Eventually, as I become more comfortable with the tone, the content will become darker and more sardonic, and after the Blogathon (by the way, have you pledged? I'm only $85 from making my goal!) I'll be playing with podcasts as well.

And on that note, I'm off to church. Happy Sunday.
Happy Last Day of July.
Tomorrow, my month begins.

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Saturdays, the Sci-Fi channel runs “b” movies, monster movies that are just as cheesy, as anything my parents might have grown up with, and while the monsters sport cgi blurs instead of zippers, at least the underbellies of tumbled trucks no longer read “Tonka.”

Today the theme is “vampires.” I love a good vampire story, but it's JULY – high summer â“ and vampire movies are best suited for dreary drizzly autumn and winter days, when your imagination works with the weather to turn windown leaves skittering across the pavement into the scratching of someone clawing their way from the grave.

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In one corner there is the mosquito, buzzing annoyingly, constantly being batted away from the tender flesh it seeks. In the other corner, a yellow and black argiope spider, beckoning from her zigzag web. What ensues is not a prize-fight, but a duel to the death.

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