What's Up In Dena's World?

/

This week has our favorite writer feeling frazzled. To get a grip on life (and because she has, like, ZERO energy to come up with anything more creative), here's a quick peek behind the wizard's curtain:

WORK

  • 2 newsletter articles
  • Developmental edit on book due to editor
  • Write, rewrite, rip apart and write again children's book for client
  • Conduct interviews, interviews, interviews for other book for client
  • Transcribe interviews, interviews, interviews
  • Write book from interviews, interviews, interviews
  • Compose query letter and sample columns for magazine I want to work for as a columnist
Read More

Food Rationing

/

We got hit this weekend with about 10" of snow. Because I am a calm, rational, hard-core Mid-Westerner, I don't follow the rest of the lemmings to the supermarket at the first hint of snow, stocking up on bread, milk, batteries and duct tape as though Armageddon is at hand.

This, I believe, makes me intellectually superior to those around me.

It also makes me stuck in the house with no damn food to eat. 

Read More

The Life & Times of Albert The Bug

/

Police sketch of AlbertYesterday afternoon, I noticed a small, flat-backed, gray-brown bug near the top of the kitchen sink.

"Bug," I said to Blair, pointing at it. (This is marital code for: "Deal with it.")

"That's Albert," said Blair. (Marital code for: "It's just a bug and I'm trying to make a sandwich and if it bothers you so much, you deal with it.")

I didn't want to deal with it, so Albert stayed. His presence quickly grew on us. About an hour later, I went to put a glass in the sink and noticed Albert had shifted position about a foot to the left.

"Hi, Albert," I said. I heard Blair offer a similar greeting when he returned to the kitchen for a snack. 

Early evening, I go into the kitchen to make dinner. As I'm pouring steaming hot pasta water into the colander to drain the spaghetti, I see Albert perilously close to where the water is splashing up in the sink.

"Albert, look out!" I cried.  

We were cleaning dishes up from dinner when I asked Blair what he thought Albert ate.

"I don't know that we need to carry it that far," he said. 

Huh. In my book, if you name something, it's a pet for life and now you're responsible for it.

Which is why I'm sad to announce that Albert has disappeared. He was nowhere to be found this morning. Maybe we just didn't love him enough. Maybe he was bored. Or hungry.

Or maybe he was just a bug. But he was a good bug. Our bug.

We miss you, Albert. 

New Watering Hole

/

Being in our bedroom these days is like being on the open plains of the Serengeti, in that the cats have discovered a new "watering hole," and are both working to claim dominance. 

We have electric heat and it causes a lot of dryness in the air. Blair read that placing a small container of water in front of a vent helps add moisture to the air. So we filled a small tupperware dish with water and placed it on the floor in our bedroom in front of the heat vent. 

The cats LOVE the water dish. Like the lions of the Serengeti, they take turns at this new watering hole, eyes glittering in the dark as they lap up the warm liquid. We fall asleep each night listening to the constant "schlup-schlup-schlup" sound of cats drinking their body weight in fluid.

And just like a real watering hole, there is a pecking order. You do not approach the watering hole if there is already an animal present. One cat crouches protectively over the dish while the other sits on its haunches across the room, hoping a crocodile appears to drag the dominant cat underwater in a death spiral. 

I expect a pack of zebra's to show up any day.