Copycat

I just read somebody else’s blog
http://kathleenhills.wordpress.com/
so I had to be all monkey-see/monkey-do and post to my own.

I’m all full of myself because I bought the 2008 Linux Power-Pack and installed it myself. Well, sort of myself–I had a couple of other more experienced Linux users to call on for help. But MOSTLY I did it myself. Honest. So now I feel like a steely-eyed missile man, deserving of the Pocket Protector of Honor.

We’re finally thawing out from under our latest onslaught of freezing rain. My mother’s biggest holly bush bit the dust, snapped at the trunk under the weight of the ice on its leaves. It’s already sprouting out from the stump, though, so she may have her bush back by next winter. A tree went over, leaning at a 45 degree angle across the driveway, so that was exciting, but my husband cut it down. There goes my last cheap thrill.

 

Success! Hooray for me!

No, I don’t have my printer working right. I’m celebrating my book video. I made it all my own little self. It’s lame, I know–no sound, no film footage, no special effects, but I did it.

Sword and Sorceress book trailer
My story is on page 192. <grin>

 

Foiled

I’ve been wrestling with installing a printer, and the printer has won.  I’m running Linux Mandriva 2006 and my old printer died, so I bought a new all-in-one.  I researched it first, and learned that it’s compatible and well-supported by hp and the Linux community.  Downloaded the driver.  Downloaded the dependency packages, all of which took about eight hours over my dial-up connection.  And the installation failed.

So now I’ve bought Linux Mandriva 2008 and hope that the driver for my printer is in there.  Please don’t tell me that nobody should run Linux unless they know what they’re doing–please don’t.  If I only did things I know how to do, I never would do anything.  At least this program comes with a manual.  I only hope it doesn’t start out assuming I know things I don’t know.  Linux for Dummies, that’s what I need.

Meanwhile, I installed a driver for some other printer, and my printer prints and copies, but it won’t scan.  Two out of three is better than nothing, I suppose.

I also made a meatless loaf for supper and it was very good, except that I seem to have gotten a bit of walnut shell into it along with the walnuts, so it’s rather like eating real meatloaf complete with chips of bone.  Ugh.

I’m not vegetarian, by the way, just prefer slabs to mince and bones I can see and remove before they make it into my mouth.

 

What Columns?

“What are these columns you keep talking about?” I hear no one cry.  So I’ll tell you.  I write a food history column every weekday for Worldwide Recipes, the Best Darned Recipezine in the Whole Darned Universe.  I’m usually scrambling to keep up, because I’m usually getting sidetracked and wanting to play around in the information I find instead of just knocking out a couple hundred words and moving along.  That’s the trouble with doing something you love to do–you want to spend a lot of time doing it.

 

Chicken and Dumplings

One of the best foods ever invented is chicken and dumplings.  We had some last night.  Cooked down some chicken bones and gave the scraps to the happy happy dog, then mixed up about a cup of all-purpose flour, an egg and some milk, rolled it out, cut it into squares and put the squares into the boiling broth.  Personally, I prefer fluffy dumplings, but I like the little noodle-like ones, too, like the ones I made last night.  My husband’s family calls them “slicks”.  They’re good with dried sage crumpled up in the dough, too, but I cooked fresh sage, onions and garlic into the broth.  We had some left-overs but, when I got home from visiting my mother, our #3 daughter had stopped by and eaten all the slicks and most of the broth.  Ah, well–I’ll just add some more chicken, some veggies and some thickened boullion and made a chicken pot pie.  Happiness reigns!

No, I haven’t even started my Chronicles for next week….

 

Making Progress Slowly

I spent a couple of days with my writer-daughter and we both got a little work done.  I don’t know what broke through her block, but she sat down saying she didn’t know what to do with a particular scene and got up with the scene finished.

I’m working on a comic mystery–I had finished about fifty pages, but it wasn’t feeling right.  I decided to try changing it from third person to first person, and that’s bringing it to life for me.  As I go through and change it, I’m opening up the scenes as well.  It was going too fast, before, had no shape.  I think it’s better now….

Tomorrow, I need to get started on my columns for next week.  I think I know what I’m going to do them on; at least, two or three of the five.  I love getting started early in the week.  I enjoy poking around and following my curiosity.  When I get started later in the week, I have to just shove something out–always something I’m interested in, but not so much exploring.

 

Small Favors

Lucky for me nobody reads this blog, because I didn’t post anything yesterday.  I don’t suppose it’s MANDATORY to post every day, which is another small favor.   I did my Chronicles for next week today, so I might actually get some writing done during the rest of the week.  I worked on a book trailer for Marion Zimmer Bradley’s SWORD AND SORCERESS XXII, which has a story of mine, “Child of Ice, Child of Flame”, in it, but I can’t get it to play….  As soon as I figure out what goofy thing I did wrong, I’ll see how many ways I can mess up trying to post it.

 

Comfort Food

We had a long-forgotten favorite tonight:  tuna noodle casserole.  I had forgotten how much I like it–creamy and cheesy and packed with bad carbs.  Tuna noodle casserole gets a bad rap, like so many foods us boomers ate in our youth.  I guess anything our mothers or grandmothers put in front of us and made us sit there until we cleaned our plates became automatically uncool.  I was a picky eater as a child, and considered everything but meat and mashed potatoes yucky.  Somewhere in the ’70’s, though, I discovered pizza and instant rice and there was no going back.  Now I’m a dedicated eater, and the old standbys are fine by me.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

small can of tuna, drained
can of condensed cream of mushroom soup (if you’re not from the Midwest, you may substitute fresh mushrooms and cream sauce)

noodles, cooked (spaghetti will do, or macaroni)

peas (canned, if you’re from the Midwest–otherwise, freshly cooked or frozen cooked will do)

grated cheese (if you’re from the Midwest, it should be Velveeta processed cheese in a block cut into small cubes)

crushed crackers

Put all this in a buttered casserole dish and bake at 350F until bubbly, about half an hour.  Sticks to your ribs.

 

What I’m Reading

I’m reading HIS DARK MATERIALS by Philip Pullman.  I’ve finished THE GOLDEN COMPASS and am into THE SUBTLE KNIFE.  What an imagination this guy has!  Great stuff, and I love the intricacy of his characterization.  Im breathless to know more about his take on angels and what he does with this Great War and Lord A’s designs on God.

I did, finally, finish my columns.  Tomorrow’s Monday, and I start again.

 

About

M a r i a n A l l e n writes science fiction, fantasy, mystery, humor, horror, mainstream, and anything else she can wrestle into fixed form. For as long as she can remember, she has loved telling and being told stories. When, at the age of about six, she was informed that somebody got paid for writing all those books and movies and television shows, she abandoned her previous ambition (beachcomber), and became a writer. Allen has worked as a high school teacher, an executive secretary, an accountant, and in Red Cross Youth Services. She is married, with three step/adopted daughters, one birth daughter, and varying numbers of cats, dogs and Other.She has been published in anthologies, on-line magazines, print magazines, newspapers, on electronic disk, coffee cans and the wall of an Indian restaurant (see Links). Folklore, mythology, and archetypes are basic to her writing. She is a member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, the Southern Indiana Writers Group and, when her finances run to another membership, Green River Writers.