Drummer's Corner of the World

I got my copy of cadhla/Mira Grant's "Feed" today.

Best novel cover ever.

They spot-varnished the blood. Seriously. I'm in love with this book.

Errie was across the room from me, crouched behind a cardboard box, so I couldn't see his feet. He was acting strange, and at first I thought he was stalking something, then it started to look like he was just twitching and he looked unfocused and distressed.

Just as I got up to go check on him, with visions of seizures and all kinds of dire possibilities running through my head, he got up with a bit of a popping noise, and strolled off normally.

Apparently he had a claw hung in the carpet. *rolls eyes*

I really need to relax... really...

Cleaning out my spam folder today, I came across the following headline...

"I have to report, unfortunately, that Clovis Press in Brooklyn is now a cheese ..."

Now my brain is trying to come up w/ a story to go w/ the heading.

Note to self: Sudden explosive sneezing in the immediate vicinity of a soundly sleeping mostly deaf dog leads to some highly entertaining (and somewhat disgruntled) looks from said sleepy dog.

Oh, if only I'd had a camera... talk about bed-head! :-)

At some point, every MacWorld, I have to eat at Chevy's, because I like their food, they make killer margaritas, and there's still not one any closer to me than Chicago. So tonight I went to Chevy's with a friend, and I came home with a penguin.

Across the room, we spotted a guy wearing the most amazing balloon hat, topped with a penguin. I assumed he was one of those random magician/entertainer types who haunt restaurants (and who I normally find annoying)... but it turned out to be a 14-year-old kid, building his college fund by making the most amazing balloon animals. He can't drive yet, so his mom drives him, and the two of them seemed to be really close. So this nice, bright, articulate young man made me a balloon penguin, who is now gracing the Really Ugly Chair in the hotel room.

A nice way to brighten the end of the day...

Because I hijacked Sally's new field recorder for the weekend to act as a stand-in for the memory that I don't have, I now present random sound bites from cadhla's improv workshop at OVFF...

while talking about playing the game of "Questions"... "It's also the concept on which most speech simulators on the internet are built, so if you get good enough at it, you can make Eliza explode."

on visualizing your audience... "You can try picturing people naked. I've heard people say that that's a great technique... I don't think so. ... Because the trouble is that if you've really got a vivid imagination you start picturing people naked, and it's all okay because we're all people, and that's good and then you stop and think... 'What if Maureen is actually from Mars?' and suddenly I'm looking at Maureen and not only is she naked but there are tentacles involved... and I am no longer happy in this conversation."

on patter... "You'll find that most of the good patter in filk... is very very fast and makes very little sense. We're not big on sense here!"

on developing facial expressions (specifically, sad face)... "You're not sad enough. Why aren't you sad? I JUST SHOT YOUR PUPPY!"

which led to a comment by me that now we have a room full of Zombie Puppies from Ohio, which was determined to be a very good name for a band. Now I need a logo for buttons...

And, just because we promised not to let her live it down (and as an example of things that you try not to be embarrassed by when they come out of your mouth), during the discussion of our just-completed animal improv, there was this gem...

"If you're trying to get something across real fast, crack open the clamshell... lick yourself." *room laughs* "I'm going to pretend that I didn't just say those two things together..."

It snowed today... we got about seven inches of light, fluffy powdery white stuff. Played merry hell with the homeward commute... my housemate took almost an hour getting home, while I stayed at work (same office) a bit longer and then made it home in about 35 minutes. But still, that's only a seven-mile commute!

On the plus side, it's pretty, and fluffy, and Drummer thought it was just the coolest thing in the world. He was thoroughly fascinated by the housemate shovelling the driveway, so I got the camera out while she tossed snow at him and sometimes on him.

Taking flash photos of a moving dog in a snowstorm presents some interesting challenges, but I managed to get a few fun shots.

( Enough talk... on to the pictures! )