I always feel a little bit odd about doing promo--as if I were hawking my wares on the street, yelling to all those walking by, "Get yet workshops while they're hot!" (Or books, or whatever it is I'm trying to draw attention to.) On the other hand, for those people who are interested in what I do...and I'm assuming that's at least A FEW of the folks who read my blog...how are they to know unless I tell them?

So here is a reminder of the couple of classes I have coming up, and a gentle reiteration of the warning I gave last month: that this is probably the last time I'll be giving them, since I need to focus more of my time and energy on the writing, now that I have a fiction book contract. If you were planning to take either a witchcraft or a writing workshop with me, better get...

I don't talk about it much (because, dude--BORING), but I live with pain 24/7 and have since I was twenty-four. I'm Fifty-three now...you do the math. That's when I developed fibromyalgia, which is basically Latin for "ow, everything hurts and they don't know why." And recently I got hit with a new pain thingy, which is just too irksome and weird to go into here, but it seriously effects my ability to travel and exercise, and is just generally Not Fun.

Mostly, there isn't much that can be done about either of these issues (or the tendonitis that comes from being a writer who also uses a computer at work). I do stretches and some mild exercise, use a number of non-traditional approaches like acupuncture, massage, Reiki, and hypnotherapy, and on the very worst days, take Tylenol w...

I am still fighting the good fight against the rat incursion. (RATS!) So far the count is Deborah 9, Rats 2 --the washer hose and my good garden boots, which I went to pull out of a corner of the mudroom yesterday and discovered THIS

Rats. We hates them, my Precious...

But I'm hearing less noise in the walls, so hopefully I've made a sizable dent in their population.

In the meanwhile, I still haz the cute kitties to console me. Here's your Friday Feline fix. I hope your Friday is fabulous and your weekend lovely.
 Magic, feeling that my row of birthday cards was missing something somehow.
Samhain, giving me the "you aren't REALLY going to stick me with that giant needle again" look. Poor baby, she's a trooper.

...

I got 'em.

Last Wednesday, I went down into my basement, a place I tend to avoid whenever possible, on account of it is dim, dirty, and a little creepy. Not to mention full of spiderwebs. Bleh. But I was overdue to change the filter on the water cleaner, so I dutifully marched down there to take care of it.

[Side note: it is moments like this when I think, "Damn, it would be handy to have a guy around to do this crap." Just sayin'.]

I got part of the way down the narrow stairs and saw a piece of wood (from the dirt and lathe wall that has the kitchen on the other side) lying on the 4th step down. Huh. Then I got another couple of steps down, and could see that there was a bunch of dirt on the bottom steps. Clearly, something had dug through the wall....

Happy Friday, all--here's looking at you kid!



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