Warogobogo

…relax, it’s just a nonsense word

Doc Update!

1: As announced earlier elsewhere, the doctor took the stitches out of my shoulder and told me I’ll be cleared to go back to work as soon as I feel up to it. Given that my arm is a bit weak from lack of use and still has a tiny bit of pain in the shoulder, I reckon I’ll be off work at least another week or two.

2: I finished reading “I Am Half-Sick Of Shadows”, the fourth Flavia de Luce novel by Alan Bradley. It was, as they all have been, a darned good read and a good mystery.

3: I’ve also finished Doc Savage: The Lost Radio Scripts of Lester Dent. It’s a pretty interesting read and look back at how radio scripts were written. Considering that pretty much each episode was a self contained story presented in 15 minutes, they are pretty good tales. It would be great if somebody could produce them again, probably for internet radio.

4: My Sweet Little Pork Tamale Of Love, Grace, is doing very well in her battle against diabetes. She has lowered her numbers significantly in the last month or so. GO GRACE!

5: Lucy and Sasha, AKA The Girls, are fit as canine fiddles and living the good life. Whoever thought that saying “a dog’s life” or “treated like a dog” was a bad thing?

6: I am still about 10 1/2 months and 364 entries away from my goal of 500 Doclopedia entries, but I’m chipping away at it. I’m more than halfway through my repat tackling of the alphabet and I have an idea of what the next couple of themes will be.

7: On another writing front, also mentioned elsewhere, I’m going along nicely on my rewrites of the previous four DogCon/CatCon fictional convention reports. The first one was rather short, so it’s getting some serious beefing up. The second and fourth are getting a smaller dose of love and the third, massive one, is getting only a minor polishing. Seeing as how those four will make up about 90 entries…AND I need to start the fifth one (which I’m writing in advance) by the end of July…I’ll start reposting them on the fiction blog about the end of March.

8: And because I have nothing to do with my free time but write, I’ve also started on a Secret RPG Writing Project for eventual sale next year. More on that several months from now.

9: I’m also getting things together for a webcomic and an ebook, because I’m insane.

10: My veggie garden plans are not firmed up yet, but I’m just waiting for the rainy season to pass and then it’s on, baby!

And now, I have chores to to before writing, or my wife and dogs will beat me about the head and shoulders.

The Mysterious and Tense, Yet Somewhat Psychedelic, Story Of Mostly Purple Patty And The Meatloaf Of The Damned

…co-starring her best buddy, Orville Sweetcracker

Doc Update

Time for an update about life here at the D&G Cross Home For Wayward Basset Bitches. I haven’t been doing these as regularly as I used to, so maybe this will be the start of renewed personal updatage. Or not.

Healthwise, I’m now taking blood pressure meds due to my previously excellent BP going a bit high recently. I’m only taking half a pill a day, so I guess I’m not in danger of keeling over any time soon. I’ve also been told that my blood sugar is “nearly into the pre-diabetic range”, which pretty much means “lose some weight, fat boy!”.

Grace’s low level diabetes has cranked up a notch, so she is taking pills now and keeping a much closer eye on her numbers with twice daily tests. She has lost something like 75 pounds over the last year or so, but will keep on losing until things improve.

Winker is still taking her blood thinner and her diuretic, so she is doing pretty darned well for a dog who was so close to death just about a year ago.

Lucy and Sasha are as healthy as can be. In fact, our efforts to fatten Sasha up just a bit (she was very skinny when we adopted her) have not beeb as successful as we hoped. Being a “sporty” basset, she just burns off calories at a hell of a rate. Still, we have gotten her to a point where you can’t see her ribs.

Jobwise, things are still the same, which means we will be on our Adventure In Poverty until we either get fat raises or win the lottery.

One speed bump in our financial road will come when I am off work after my shoulder operation in March. That will be about 6 weeks, depending upon how well my physical therapy goes. Things will be very tight on the money front for awhile.

Gardenwise, I don’t know if we’ll have a veggie garden this year. Between the goofy ass weather (as in NO WINTER!) and my surgery/recovery, we’ll probably just have a couple of tomato plants and maybe some green beans.

In gaming news, I’m looking forward to my annual trek to Dundracon. It will be good to be immeresed in geekdom and hang out with my tribe for a few days. Beyond that, I’m planning on getting my gaming group together in late April for some regular roleplaying again. I’m not sure what genre we’ll play in, but some sort of Pulp Era game sounds good.

Hark! I hear certain hounds telling me that it is time for walkies. More bloggage soon!

Now We Are Five

…because Sasha has come to stay

Doc, Grace, Lucy & Winker Cross are happy to announce the adoption of Miss Sasha Jane Cross as of 12:30 pm, Jan. 2nd, 2012.

Sasha is 3 year old, red and white Basset Hound. Her previous mom & dad both work and have a 10 month old son, so they were unable to give her the attention she deserved. She is very healthy, although a tad on the skinny side. She is a very sweet girl, who seems to have no problems with her new sisters. She is whining a bit right now, because Grace left to get her a new collar and an ID tag.

Winker, and especially Lucy (our sweet little bag of neuroses), seem to be taking this new sister adoption pretty well. We have no doubt that they will soon be plotting mischief together.

Pictures of Sasha will go online soon, as will her Dogbook page.

Added note: Oddly, this is the second time we have adopted a new dog on the anniversary of the death of an old dog. Daisy left us three years ago today.

Mexican Jenny Threw A Party

…and it ended with everybody heading for breakfast at IHOP

The weather has been pretty rainy and crappy here, with yesterday being a windy & rainy pain in the ass. I had to drive in the storm all day and it was the opposite of fun.

In other news, Winker is still doing great healthwise and has her old appetite back. Lucy is in great shape, as usual, but has become a whiney girl where food is concerned. Grace and I are pretty healthy, middle age considered.

In gardening news, it’s too damned wet to do any gardening yet.

More bloggage later.

Mashed Potato Birthday Cake

…with yummies inside

Today is Winker’s 6th Birthday! She will be getting the above mentioned cake for dinner, plus lots of love and bellyrubs.

Thanks to everyone who took the last poll. I’m shooting for the end of January as a launch date for the E-zine.

Grace is off to Oakland to do mystery shops today. I’ll be off to the UVB Barbecue for Middle Aged Gamers later, then to work.

I’m halfway through watching Season One of Sanctuary. It’s a pretty good show, for s Sci Fi Channel series. (note that I do not call it Syfy, mostly because that is an idiotic name)

I’m also within 10 pages of finishing The Two Towers. I’m glad I decided to re-read LOTR.

Ok…time for the Mug O’ Tea. More bloggage later.

A Song…A Dance…A Fireball In Your Pants

…beware of wacky wizards

My Plans For Today

1: Write/edit stuff for the Coming Real Soon Now website. By “write” I mostly mean write and watch tv and give demanding dogs and wives some attention.

2: Rearrange things in the library. Since this means moving heavy boxes of books & stuff, I can be sure of no interruptions from the above mentioned dogs or wife.

3: Straighten up game room. Possibly with supervision by a certain visually impaired basset hound.

4: Go to the store to buy food, then come home to cook it. Alone at last!

5 Eat dinner and finish watching Season One, Disc One of “Sanctuary”.

That is all.

The Secret Files Of Sherlock Holmes

… if you thought “Thr Giant Rat of Sumatra” was weird, wait’ll ya read these

Yes, I have some website related plans for things Holmesian.

So far, today is off to a really slow start for me. Grace is out mystery shopping her butt off, The Girls are having their Pre-Park Walk Nap and I’m still waking up. Part of my lethargy I attribute to a pretty sore facial sunburn that I got in the UVB booth yesterday after forgetting to bring in a towel to coner my face during the 7+ minutes I was baking. Stupid me. Still, I should be ok by this evening. Sunburns don’t trouble me for very long.

We watched “Watchmen” again Thursday night and I still think they did a good job adapting it. Pity that the “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” movie couldn’t have been done by the same director.

And now, I’m off to shower and then stroll with my bitches.

Sliced Potatos Fried In Duck Fat

…here, ducky ducky

Gadzooks! The weekend was pretty fuckin’ brutal to Uncle Doc, kiddies. Mystery shops out the wazoo (along with their corresponding reports) kicked my ass. I was up until 2:00 AM doing reports on Saturday and up until 12:30 last night. Only had time to bathe one dog (Winker(, so Lucy will get cleansed tonight. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do some writing tonight, too.

The Migration Of The Dancing Elks

…it’s a 200,000 elk conga line

Stuff…IN 3D!!!

1: Grace and I both had to work on our anniversary yesterday, but when I got home, I whipped up a dinner of pork chops, mashed potatos, gravy, spinach and tapioca pudding for dinner. It was very filling and delicious.

2: Your Humble Narrator has been working on content for the new website. I’ve polished and expanded characters from my “365 Days, 365 Characters/Locations” pieces on LJ back in 2006. I’ve written outlines for about 4 short stories, including one featuring Sherlock Holmes. I’ve gone through a couple of world settings that need expansion and rewriting. And finally, I’ve been expanding and rewriting “On the Road With Violet”, which is looking pretty good for the serial fiction category.

3: In canine news, every month finds Lucy becoming more adapted to our household. She is much more tolerant and less afraid of Winker now. As for Grace and I, well, we are her favorite Mom & Dad in the whole universe and she is always ready for love and tummy rubs. We still need to get her better socialized with other humans and animals, but on the whole, Lucy is way better than when we first brought her home.

4: Going to apply for a job in a couple of hours. More on that if it pans out.

Now, breakfast and shower. More blog-o-rama later.

The 5 Blue Budgies Start The League Of Extraordinary Avians

…with the aid of Sherlock Hornbill, Crownacki the Ghost Finder and a teenage Duck Savage

STUFF

1: The most recent recent poll will close tonight after I get home from work. One question is tied right now, so if you haven’t voted, now’s yer chance, pilgrim.

2: Somewhere between tonight and Friday night, I’ll be making a fairly big announcement. well, fairly big for me. How big it is for you is up to y’all.

3: May Dog have pity on me, I will be including broccoli in tonight’s bigass pot of VEGGGGGIE STEWWWWWW FOOOR DOOOOOOOOGGGGGSSSSS! Grace and I will be regretting this.

4: Being poor and ass deep in debt sucks. Just sayin’.

5 If 25-30 of you would like to come help me with the HUMONGOUS garden renovation over the next 6 months, I’d be very thankful for your help. Or you can wait, check out pictures that I’ll be posting of Facebook and here, then sit back and laugh.

6: Certain mostly white visually impaired hounds of my accquaintance are being very demanding today.

7: So, some rightwing religious nuts want to re-write the Bible to make it less liberal. I swear, watching the right go more batshit insane by the day is fascinating, hilarious, scary and, I suspect, a reversal of evolution.

More stuff later. Work now.