Maidens and Monsters

I think that was the hardest ten pages I’ve EVER written.

Yes, even including all the scenes from The Novel What Drove Me To Alcoholism from 2009.

But, at any rate, the Majors for the Mathematics Tarot now have titles, explanations, histories, and meanings.

Brain is full of math.

Send halp.

pony210 replied to your post: So, new development. For those of you who don’t…

What about boards angling out? So that they *couldn’t* get on top of the fence in the first place? And if you are really worried you can complain to the town of Sidney annoymously (though personally I hate it when our neighbours do this to us) and get them to come out and talk to your neighbours about their cats. It sounds like the cats are a threat to the well being? of the neighbourhood. I’d be scared for my own old man. We don’t live that far away.

Well, all things considered, this might be a good idea.  Mainly because we aren’t the only neighbors I’ve talked to that have MAJOR issues with these cats.  They went after and BEAT UP the neighbor’s BULLDOG.  The renters next door saw it happen and were deeply upset by how viscious it was.  And they’ve been going into Elizabeth’s cat door and beating up her cats INSIDE the HOUSE.

Caps lock for rage.

Thanks for the tips, hon — we were considering the board idea as well.

So, new development.

For those of you who don’t know me IRL, we used to have a large, fenced-in backyard with a gate round the front side.  After the Liveblogging Storm feature and subsequent R.I.P Fence incident, we still have the yard, but we don’t have the fence — except what’s left around what we call the “back porch” area.  That fence is over six feet high, and has an equally tall gate, so for a while we were confident about letting our cat into that area.  He’s an old, easily stressed monster, and for a while he was generally more relaxed when he was able to get out into the fresh air without a harness whenever he wanted to roll around and eat the pansies.

And then this morning happened.

Okay, across the street from us live a couple.  The husband is an easy-going mailman who looks like an ageing hippie who hasn’t eaten in a year, and is a darling.  He likes us, and always waves and says hello.

His wife, for some inexplicable reason, HATES us.  In the most unreasonable, illogical, messed-up way.  She’ll walk to the other side of the street if she sees us.  We’ve been trying to figure out why for years, to no avail.

Now, previously, they had one cat.  She was sweet and lovely and oh-so-beautiful and she and Toky even GOT ALONG.  Which, if you know my cat, is somewhat of a major miracle.  He hates socializing with his species as much as I hate socializing with mine.  And then they went along and got a kitten, like idiots, and this previously loved and spoiled girl went completely insane within a few months.  They didn’t get the hint and kept the kitten, who to be fair was quite a good cat, and it was unfortunate when he caught some illness and died — but not before Pretty Girl was irredeemably warped by the experience, and had to be put down because she was past the point of resocializing.

They got twin kittens to replace these two about six months ago.

Now, at first, they were fine cats.  No problem.  Young, playful, were good about staying in their own yard.

Fast forward to two months ago, when the DAILY FIGHTS at 6am started.  These two bastards pick fights with every cat in the neighborhood on a regular basis.  They love fighting.  They go out of their way to do it.  They roam two blocks from their house every day just to beat up the little calico lady who lives near the park.

Fast forward to half an hour ago, when I went into the backyard to find my cat plastered in a corner, staring at Bastard Cat #1 about to jump down into the yard, and Bastard Cat #2 futilely trying to crawl under the gate.  Both trying to get at my elderly, arthritic, easily stressed-out little monster who has no defense mechanisms to speak of, and who would without exaggeration be torn to ribbons if either of them were aggressive, let alone BOTH of the evil little prats.

I was, if you’ll excuse my language, FUCKING LIVID.

I’ve been trying to think of solutions since then, and all of them suck.  An anti-cat sound system would freak out my cat.  If I sprayed anti-cat stuff on top of the fence, I’d have to redo it every few weeks, and I’d still be paranoid.  If I put barbed wire or chicken wire on top of the fence, I would probably seriously hurt one of the Bastard Twins, and as much as I hate them, I don’t want to be the cause of a large vet bill for the neighbors.  Doubly so if they blamed us, which, knowing our luck, the whole “they wouldn’t stay the hell out of our yard” argument wouldn’t work.  We could trap them, but where would we put the trap, and what would we do one we caught them?  They’ve tags and everything.  And talking to the owners is no good because duh, Wife already hates us for no reason at all, how well do you think THAT is going to go over?

I might just break down and nail lemon skins to the top of the fence.

SO ANGRY.

Two days after moving everything into the new office, my wireless connection decided to die, once and for all, instead of just threatening to like it has been for months. 

Which effectively renders my entire office setup useless until I can afford and acquire a 75 foot ethernet cable. 

I’m writing this from my father’s computer, which gives me the crawling horrors, since in order to use it I must have the largest room in the house at my back.  Neurotic Alamaris does not do well with enormous open spaces behind her.

In the grand scheme of things, this doesn’t come anywhere near the sort of catastrophic business and household related disasters we have nightmares about, but nevertheless, it still blows dead bears.  Especially since I sold over two hundred books today just to make enough money to pay my bills, and couldn’t be more broke if I tried.

Given the lack of doors in the rest of the household and my mother’s inability to understand “quiet homework time” even when faced with absurdly convoluted death threats, I don’t even think math is on the table for the next week or two.  So far the plan is to rage, swear, curse, yell, and then make jewelry for three days without sleeping.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go read about the history of homosexual representation in Muslim art and grump for the rest of the evening.

It’s been…a long time since I can remember being this exhausted.

If there’s radio silence for the next week or more, you know why.  Tomorrow isn’t going to be any nicer, but hopefully on Friday I can get the Etsy shop set up and finish my accounting.  Thank you for your patience, my darlings.

*collapses on office floor*

keepcalmandwearafez replied to your post: Back from errands, postage quotes, finished making…

i know this won’t be anytime soon because of how busy you are but can i come over and see your new office?

Of course!  It’ll be a little while before I’m settled in it, but I’ll let you know when all is set and done.  :)

Back from errands, postage quotes, finished making sixteen necklaces, and buying art supplies.

Now I will put up curtains in the new office!  And organize the books, and clean up yesterday’s mess so I can share my brand new art-space with y’all.

Then, all the acrylic glazing.

Be back soon!

some days I have to choose between schoolwork and making things that make money

the life of a drop-out trying to graduate:　

it is full of glamour

K and I started new characters in Lord of the Rings Online tonight, for the purpose of questing and leveling together.

I don’t know if there’s anything more hilarious than an illicit lesbian romance between a butch human Champion and a femme halfling Archer.  Especially when the human decides to buy (and drink) 60 flagons of ale and then run amok through the streets of Combe while the halfling runs after her, yelling.

The other players must have thought we were bonkers.

At any rate, I didn’t get anything on my to-do list done today, which I feel rather badly about, so hopefully tomorrow will be more productive.

This week’s tarot deck (following the Deck of the Week project over at the forums) is the Tarot of Physics, which is driving me absolutely nuts because I… *very small voice* …feel like I could have done it better.  Also it just makes me want to try out the Mathematics Tarot and write that damn book.  Maybe next week I’ll get a chance to play with it.

Oh!  And I read my first book in over two months today, which is a record no-reading time for me, and somewhat disconcerting.  The book what broke the streak was The Wrath of Trees by Bard Bloom, which is a brilliantly imaginative  science fiction novel about a kidnapped telepathic tree and her political adventures with the aliens who hold her hostage.  Seriously, find yourselves a copy, it is stunning.

I’ll have some jewelry up in the shop soon, so keep an eye out for that.

Have yourselves a lovely night, tumblebums.

SQUEEEE!

Hildegard of Bingen was recognized as an OFFICIAL SAINT last week and I didn’t even know!

SQUEEEEEEEE!

(Once a Catholic history nerd, always a Catholic history nerd.  Hildegard was my role model and one of my choices for naming when I was considering becoming a nun.  The more you know!  Check her out, she’s awesome.)

SQUEE!

Spent the evening in Lord of the Rings Online grinding levels on my Dwarf Guardian by:

• killing wolves
• killing bears
• killing a different kind of bear
• killing boars
• killing southerners
• killing robbers
• killing tree roots
• killing psychotic trees
• accidentally aggro-ing half a forest
• being killed by psychotic trees
• killing more trees
• and sitting through my Captain blather about rap and his ex-girlfriend in kinship chat for three hours

K, you don’t read this blog, but when I hit level 20 tomorrow after all this, you OWE me.

What ACTUALLY happened was that I got a book, laid down on my bed to read, and then immediately FACEPLANTED into the book and passed out for half an hour.

Okay, okay, I get it, I’m going to bed, already.