Change is in the Air

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It finally feels truly like fall. Temperatures are cresting in the mid-eighties and cooling into the sixties at night, and there are different birds eating the seeds (and baiting MissCleo) in the back yard. As I write this, I have the air conditioning off, and the windows in the bedroom are open wide. Until the sun went down, I was watching the water in the pool reflect the sky, the trees, whatever.

Fuzzy has another trip coming up and I threatened to redecorate the living room. He’s panicked. Now, understand that when I say “redecorate,” I don’t mean that I plan to call strapping young men in cute uniforms and tool belts to install home theater lighting in my living room. I mean I might move one of the couches to a different wall, or move a lamp or two. Nothing major, just a small change.

Fuzzy is one of those people who does not embrace change well. He is also one of those people who cannot find objects that are located behind other objects. I pointed out to him that my couch-moving plan would place the back of the couch against a wall, so that nothing would be behind it. He asked me if I’d measured the space.

I do not need to measure the space to know if my couch will fit. I can look at it and tell.

At least he didn’t ask, “What wall?”

Thursday 13: 0710.11

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Thirteen Things about MISS MELISS
Things that Begin with V

  1. Vagina Monologues: Eve Ensler’s frank episodic play about women and their anatomy.
  2. Vampires: Dark, seductive, mysterious…but not always toothy…the creatures of the night always fascinate and entertain me.
  3. Velvet: I love velvet. It’s so rich and the texture is just amazing. My favorite dressy pants are chocolate velvet, not black…I love them.
  4. Venison: I don’t hunt, but I have friends who do, and my venison stew is amazing. Really.
  5. Verandah: Porch time is a big thing for me. I’ve always wanted a big waterfront house with a verandah and a porch swing. I’m getting there. Right now, I have a big house with a pool and a deck.
  6. Vespers: Evening prayer. I like the calming, reflective mood of vespers more than the actual praying part, though.
  7. Vices: We all have them. Mine are books, expensive coffee, perfume, and hats.
  8. Violets: My grandmother used to talk to her violets, and even though it was her sister’s name, not hers, I associate them with her. Violets, morning glories, wooden spoons and Oil of Olay…those are her symbols and scents.
  9. Violoncello: Known informally as just ‘cello, this is perhaps the most versatile of the orchestral strings, and I’m not just saying that because it’s my instrument. Listen to a recording of Pablo Casals or Jacqueline Dupree, and then listen to Apocalyptica or VonCello, and you’ll understand.
  10. Virgin Rose: It starts out as a deep violet, and ends as an earthy, beety pink. It’s not a flower, though, it’s a shade of Special Effects hair color, and it’s my new favorite.
  11. Virginia: She was my cousin, and I was born on her 31st birthday. When I turned sixteen, she gave me her sweet-sixteen ring – a peridot flanked by diamonds, mounted in rose gold. I don’t wear it, but I love that I have it.
  12. Vitari: It’s this fruit-based sorbet we sold at the snack bar in college. No dairy, no fat, not a lot of sugar. The wild berry and peach flavors were to die for.
  13. Voodoo: Magic, mystery, melodrama, what’s not to love? Or at least, love reading stories about?

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

And Now A Word…

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Every business needs some kind of advertising. It could be print ads, television spots, radio commercials, or billboards, but modern businesses know that one of the most far-reaching methods of spreading their word is via the Internet. There are whole companies devoted to “webvertising,” media companies that make nothing but videos, and SEO experts that teach their clients how best to get their corporate sites ranked in Google, and out to the viewing public.

One such marketing firm, specializing in the market in the UK and Ireland, is MyAdBase.com, a “media broker” that offers everything from press release distribution to information on average radio advertising costs in your market of choice. While they work via the web, they provide services across all the media mentioned above, serving as a sort of advertising portal for their clients.

As well as serving the general business population via their marketplace, they also do one-on-one work with regular clients.

Not quite ten years ago, advertising to the web was “new media,” and people weren’t certain it would take off.
Now, new media traditional media are used in combination, for broad-based campaigns that put company names in front of us in as many ways as possible.

If you think about it…it’s really kind of cool.

OD: Open a Drawer

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Every so often, I like to play with the Observation Deck, a box of cards that offer prompts or suggestions for getting around writing blocks or starting daily writing practice. One of my favorites is “Open a Drawer.”

My desk drawer isn’t really in my desk, but in a rolling file cube that can slide under my desk when I want it to. Right now, however, it is against the wall, holding the printer, and atop that a TiVo box and a cable converter, because the television in my studio is an old one, with no real top space on which to balance electronica, and the room lacks a formal television stand.

I open the drawer to pull out the purple plastic pencil box where I store postage stamps and stickers for the backs of letters, and when I do, other things, precariously arranged around the box, fall into the gap it’s left. I see an eraser, on of the oblong ones from school, pink on one end, gray on the other, a pencil sharpener, a roll of cellophane tape, another roll of masking tape, a glue stick.

Moving outward from the miniature landslide, toward the edges of the drawer: a box of Cinnamon Altoids, a stick of Dell Memory, a small bottle of bubbles on a plastic lanyard – because what is an office-y type place without bubbles?

The bubbles make me smile, and draw my eye out of the drawer and onto the desktop. I see my yellow rubber ducky, a souvenir from a spa we spent two glorious nights at for our third anniversary. We had to climb stairs into the tall fluffy bed, and we made an excursion into town for books and ollalie berry pie, and for dinner we ate out on the pier at Avila Beach and watched the seals playing below us as we ate Chilean sea bass in a coconut curry.

People say there’s no such thing as time travel, but I can move forward and backward in time, just by opening a drawer.

Does Anyone Remember…

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Does anyone remember the Alchera Project? Laurie Murray hosted it, and the site has now apparently reverted to the registrar, since all it contains is links for more ads and products.

As a reminder, it was a monthly writing project in which Ms. Murray would offer five prompts – a first line, a quote, a picture, a grab bag of words, etc. and participants had a month to contribute their interpretations of at least one of the prompts.

I’ve been thinking I’d like to host something similar, and I have a domain name (currently blank) primed to host it: cafewriting.com

If you’re interested, leave a comment here.

Tell your friends, as well.

Sunday Scribblings: Sorry

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“Sorry – no Scribble” was what participants looking for a prompt were greeted with this week when we went to the Sunday Scribblings website, and people quickly decided to accept the challenge to write something anyway.

The word “sorry” inspired me to figure out a scene from my book. I’m linking you to the raw, unedited version, which may or may not be recognizable when it’s incorporated into the book.

I stress the raw, unedited part because, well, it is.

Read The Beginning there, and feel free to comment here or there.

Cooking

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Right now, there is a whole chicken roasting in my oven.

I have never actually roasted an entire chicken, and am not a particular fan of chicken, but I’ve been completely craving it lately, and even though it’s still summery outside, the calendar says it’s fall, so (Rana, don’t read this part) I have no problem with cranking up the a/c a little bit so I can use the oven.

Anyway, inspired by Cynthia’s A Week in Food project, I decided to roast a chicken. I took a before shot, with it all covered in herbs, it’s just been through its first 20 minutes in the oven. The recipe I’m using said to do 20 mins at 400 and then an hour or so at 325, and so I am.

This is a no-baste recipe.

I should add that while I’ve never roasted a chicken before, I’m an expert on roasting turkeys.

Sorry, photos are being held for Cynthia’s project.

But the house smells amazing, all garlicky and herby, and…

Well, you get the idea.

Friday’s Feast: 0710.05

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Appetizer
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you look forward to your birthday?
12. I revel in birthdayness.

Soup
What is one word you don’t like the sound, spelling, or meaning of?
The only word I really dislike – and I’m not going to apologize for putting it in my blog, but I am going to asterisk it out in order to keep everyone’s filters from freaking is “c*nt.” I don’t like it because it has negative connotations, because it is used more often to degrade, humiliate or insult, than anything else, and because it’s short and clipped and not warm and welcoming. I especially don’t like it when women use it to refer to other women.

Salad
Do you wear sunglasses when you’re outside? If so, what does your current pair look like?
I do in the car, shopping, going out, and at the beach. I don’t when walking the dogs. Not sure why. The pair of the moment is a cheap pair of silver wire frames…my favorite pair ever were Anne Klein’s that were sort of round, and black, and very chic. My most recent expensive pair was a set of Maui Jim’s I bought the day after my LASIK was done. They fell apart about six months ago, and weren’t in warranty any more, nor fixable anyway, and I haven’t been able to justify blowing $200 on sunglasses since then. I still have a special fondness for classic Ray-Bans, however.

Main Course
If you were to write a book, to whom would you dedicate it?
I am writing a book. Picking the dedication is premature. There are a whole group of people who will be receiving pages sometime in the next six weeks – it will be dedicated to them, probably, and to Fuzzy, and to the baristas at my local Starbucks.

Dessert
Name a beverage that you enjoy.
Well, I’ve just learned that a root beer float made with a can of Barqs and Breyers coffee ice cream (one scoop) has only 290 calories and 7 grams of fat, so I’m kind of in love with that just now. Otherwise, I’m a froufrou coffee drink kind of person. My standard is a venti nonfat almond latte these days, but those dulce de leche lattes are to die for, and when I’m feeling icky soy no-water chais are just magic.