Gonna have a Halloween party at my house Saturday evening. It won't be going very late (ten or eleven, probably) because we're gonna do the Komen the next morning, but anyone is welcome to come.

Cinnamonblood is going to be celebrating Samhaim, which involves setting up an altar for our Beloved Dead. Basically, we're going to set up pictures with candles and offerings. Anyone that would like to join in is welcome.

Tired, Bed soon. Didn't sleep much last night. Stupid sleep.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!! Funniest goddamn thing I've ever fucking heard!!

Oh dear. Irony, you win the day.

Okay, so the feedback I got on the carving party pointed to Sunday being the best day. Unless I hear otherwise, I'm thinking it's going to be some time on Sunday. It will be BYOP, (bring your own pumpkin) but I've got enough knives and things for all.

Now I'll just have to hope that it stays cool enough for the pumpkins to last a week....

So, it's getting to be that time of year again! Costumes, candy... and pumpkins!!! I'm going to have another carving party at my house, but when could people come? I can have it Sunday or Wednesday, any time during the day or evening, or Thursday evening next week. Let me know!!

Punkins..... and punkins seeds....

I am moderately happy at my job. It's inside (which I am not fond of) and its repetitive, but it isn't bad and sometimes I have fun.

I believe there is such a thing as a dream job, but it will not be a perfect job. There will always be those days where you just want to throw the whole thing out the window and start over.

Ten years from now.... the current plan is to have a small farm somewhere, and a gaggle of kids. Or even just farm my yard more intensely. We'll see what happens. ^_^

I am working toward that goal by learning, through trial and error, how to grow things. As far as what I harvest, I haven't been all that successful in the past, but I am getting better! And then there's the chicks in my bathroom....

My bathroom goes peep peep peep peep....

Yes, I went and did it. I picked up chicks.

That is all.

Total fucking failure of a week, that's all it is. Just a total fucking failure of a week.

And what Ricky's first response to failure? GO POST ON LJ. Fuck me. Let's see if I can get through the next couple of days without disappointing anyone else.

So I'm back from the beautiful, and slightly cooler, Northwest. They were having a heatwave, and no one had air conditioning, but really, that's my only complaint for the whole trip. Seattle and Orcas Island and Victoria were all gorgeous. I had lots and lots of fun combing beaches for shells and driftwood and sea glass (which my sister has apparently started collecting, so I gave all that to her.) I saw birds and crabs (okay, mostly post bird dinner crabs, as the live ones were pretty elusive) and went on nature walks and spent a lot of good time with my mom and my Aunt Sue and my sister.

Stories can be told in person, as I like to do that better anyway.

And then I came home. I came home to a kitchen that had been 'cleaned up,' meaning that everything of mine, including all the dishes in the drying rack I took the extra time I didn't have to wash before I left, and the two loaves of bread I had baked and put in the fridge, had remained totally untouched. Anyone want bread? I have lots.

I should be at my bee keeping class right now. I just couldn't make myself go. I love it, but I just didn't feel like peeling myself out of the house. I can go next week.

I need to make my chicken brooder too, but every time I look at it now, I just think that here's another set of chores that I'm piling on myself. I won't get any help with it, and that's fine, I don't expect to. It's my project. But as I seem to be the designated maid around here, I wonder if I'm just setting myself of for future madness. Why did I put all that effort into cleaning up and making fresh bread? It really is a mystery to me.

On the plus side, I seem to have lost no plants in my absence. Okay, no plants that I hadn't planned on losing anyway. The squash was gone, the cucumbers were so amazingly bitter they couldn't be eaten (and the buggers are STILL green. Goddammit.) One tomato is definitely toast, one will definitely live, and the other two are thinking about which side of the divide they want to be on. My sweet potatoes are making another attempt at life, though I suspect they were munched by walking sausages while I was gone. Again. Next year I'm building a cage for them. This year, I'm thinking it's too late. The basil might all be toast. It remains to be seen. Perhaps no pesto this year.

The beautiful upside to coming home, however, was that Abe presented me with delicious sirloin. It was a good welcome back to Texas.

So yeah... interesting week last week. And my sister is in town this week, so it can't fail to be anything but interesting...

But enough of that. I have been having Thoughts. Thoughts about The Future.

Now, this is odd for me. I've never had a goal in life, other than getting something published. I've never had a life I wanted, a lifestyle I wanted to live, or something that I am truly passionate about. I have always envied those that have these things, that have always had these things when I had nothing. I didn't want to be anything when I was growing up, just a writer and a stay at home mom. Neither of those will keep me fed. Neither of those is enough.

So. I have been throwing my all into my garden and my cooking and cheesemaking, and you know what? I found what I want to do with my life. I'm going to have a farm that is as self sustaining as possible. I've had the threat of the whole world collapsing hanging over my head for my whole life, and, dammit, I'm just going to learn how to feed myself and those I love. There can be no higher calling, in my thinking, than the production of food. Everyone needs it. Some may look down on it because they do bigger, better things, but they would sure miss it if someone wasn't around to grow it for them.

So. I will have a hippie commune. Anyone is welcome, any time.

Today I experimented with baking tomatoes and filling the house with smoke.

Only one of these was intentional.

I have discovered what blackberries really taste like.

This is very dangerous. This means I will have to plant some next year, because the ones from the store will never live up to expectations again. Dammit.

I am getting steadily ruined on all sorts of food. And quiet enjoying it. The Farmer's Market is my new favorite place.

Not much to say, otherwise. Fighting off squash borers in the garden, corn has tasseled out. Had some bad emotional days this week, but I think I'm getting better.

Oh yes, and I just started some more cheese a minute ago. Fucking mana from heaven, and no way around it.

Today has had good things and bad things. Mostly good though.

Today I:
-got lots and lots of mulch. For the record, five bags is all that will fit in my trunk. Really.
-ordered baby sweet potatoes to put where my onions are now, since they are almost done. Yay! More plants!!
-ordered cultures for cheese and yogurt and kefir and sour cream. So happy. Yes, hippie I am, and proud of it.
-listened to the lovely rain and thunder. My garden is So Happy right now. Really wish I had more rain barrels though. Mine overflowed this morning and it's supposed to rain till Wednesday.
-Took out my belly button piercing. I was sick of it. It's been two years. Never healed. Arg.
-Am considering making bread. My mom made bagels the other day and gave me some. OMG homemade bagels. With sesame seeds. OMG.
-cleaned house a bit. Doing laundry. Got some new clothes the other day and am debating what to get rid of. I so don't need this many pairs of pants. Especially when they don't all fit.

So, yeah. Good day.

Too tired for an actual entry, here is a list of awesome things!

-The actress who plays Zoey in Firefly as Cleopatra in Xena. It was very silly, as she was not in any way black (being Greek and all) but still. <3!!!!!

-I had an onion from my garden in my quesadilla last night. It was the best thing EVAR!!

-My garden is about to expand again. I forgot to plant squash. And I need room for okra. Heee...

-Dax has a new friend! Brenenenena brought Mary over to play and they are The Bestest Friends Evar.

-I started planting a new bed in my front yard yesterday. Death to grass!

-The book I am reading leads me to believe that making cheese at home is possible..... Uh oh.

-Research into the topic also leads me to believe that homemade yogurt and sour cream is relatively easy. Let the cooking begin!!! I just have to find a stainless steel pot and order some cultures..........

In other news, I am contemplating opening a Flickr account to force myself to do something with my pictures. Thoughts? Has anyone used it? Pros? Cons?

It's raining! And lightening! And thunder!!

.... and I have to go to work. Blah. Ah well. Ar least I will be in receiving today. And I will not have to water my plants. Hurray! I do wish I had put out the inside ones yesterday though. I had intended to, but got distracted doing other things. Like clearing the junk out of the back yard. And finding awesome plants back there.

I have been gardening and writing like crazy. It's wonderful. I love this time of year. I think I will be kind of sad when I run out of things to plant.

.... or, you never know. I'll probably be glad the work is done. Then I just have to water and weed and keep pests away. Easy, right?

Hah.

I will be interested to see if my garden has a growth spurt after this. Thunder is supposed to make grass greener (BOOM) because it puts more nitrogen(?) in the air. If nothing else, all my plants will be happy to have water without chlorine in it. I need to get another rain barrel.

....anyway. Enough about that. I'm obsessed. Off to work now.

Have dragged myself out of bed for the second time today. The first was to drive Abe to work waaaaaaay too early this morning. Especially considering we both closed last night. And I close tonight. In music. Blah. (Anyone that happens to be near my store, visit me? @_@)

Today is a special day, though. Today marks six years since I started going out with Abe. We both forgot to ask it off, and I couldn't switch with anyone to get this evening free. Ah well.

Tomorrow is a Fun Day, though. Tomorrow we get to see The Last Unicorn on the big screen with Peter Beagle there! I'm excited. I haven't seen this movie since I was a very small child, and it gave me nightmares for weeks. But despite that, I still remember liking it. I am unsure if I read the book back then, but I recently did, and wow. I love his writing. I found some of his other stuff, some short stories, and they were amazing as well. He has a way of writing so that you have to put the book down between each story, just so you don't ruin it by going straight on to the next.

Am in the middle of C.S. Friedman's new book. It's pretty good. Very engrossing, as hers always are. And the characters are very real. So far, don't think it's as good as Coldfire, but, you know, that would be hard to top. But I'm only halfway through, so we'll see. I'm really interested to see where she takes all these characters.

And I've been writing like crazy lately. I have discovered (as I have to rediscover every once in awhile) that the amount I write is directly tied to how much I read. No input, no output. Logical, right? Only sometimes I forget that and don't have time to read, and I wonder where all my characters have gone, as they seem to have vacated my head. Parts of EMRUS are really coming together. It's kind of cool, to work on something so long and to finally see parts of it done. I started this thing in high school with a couple of friends one late late night. In nine years, the story has changed, my 'non-angsty' character is now full of angsty goodness (so not my fault) and the storyline has matured a huge amount. My only real problem now is controlling the number of characters, as it seems to have grown quite a bit. All the originals are there, switched around a bit, and some new ones (including a side plot inspired by an awesome Sharky drawing. ^_~)

I dunno, this is my life's work. Writing is all I ever wanted to do. (Well, that and be a stay at home mom, but people look down on that as a career choice.) I really hope it gets finished. I really hope that the ending lives up to the beginning, because, in my opinion, I think most of what I've banged out so far is pretty good. And what isn't is destined to be rewritten anyway.

Wow I can blather on. I should go do things. Like brush my hair. And play with Dax, who is suffering from acute frisbee withdrawal. The dog is addicted. I almost feel bad to introducing her to it.

• 22:03 @cinnamonblood *hugs* #

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• 15:14 Dax loves her frisbee... my cousin is getting married... off to work now. #

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• 12:48 Just pulled another cat's worth of fur off of Alice. She loves it, she hates it, she loooooves it..... #

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• 11:51 GARDENING DAY IS HERE!!!!!! So happy..... #
• 20:48 @cinnamonblood I KNOW!!!! So cool~ #
• 20:55 Happy happy rain on my happy happy garden. Hurray. #

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• 10:38 @Zieram Moo!!!! #

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