Just a quick peek in to say that yesterday I was the featured interview at The Long and Short of It. They asked me a lot of questions, and I really like how the end product turned out. Today I’ll be spending the day in their Yahoo Group. The staff at this page are amazing, they were very sweet and patient…which they needed with me this week.

Also, they requested a recipe from me, and I chose Chicken Paprika. If they link it up on their website, I’ll throw the link here…it’s one of the few things I make that I feel comfortable serving, I know it’ll turn out really well. And it’s not really the healthiest recipe in the world, so you know it has to be tasty.

Also, I’d like to randomly say that the lilies have been doing really well again this year…even the new ones I planted. The red carpet lilies (look like Oriental Lilies, but are quite short) did wonders their first year, and I plan on getting a bunch more to finish covering that hill with. I am officially addicted to lilies. I already have two banks mostly covered with your common orange daylily, and I plan on getting some more in other colors to fill out the rest, and some more Asiatic/Oriental/and what the heck maybe some tiger lilies (why aren’t they called leopard lilies? Those are spots, not stripes…) to cover a particularly bright, sunny, and problematic part of another hill. It’s going to be SO cool. I’m going to try and get a decent mix so that there are lilies all summer. *nods*

I’ve figured out all of everything…from now on I will do no more maundering. I understand it all perfectly.

You see, I’m actually a cat.

No, no, it’s true. I will lay out the evidence before you.

The one thing I miss about my bedroom? The low window that was just the right height for me to nap in front of. I love taking naps in patches of indirect sunlight. I even sleep with my paw…erm, hand…over my nose and eyes.

I stretch like, all the time. My muscles itch and I just stretch for ages until I feel better. I often stretch after naps.

I am very independent. I like being by myself.

Except when I’m very needy. Then I only expose my belly to someone I really trust. (Belly here is figurative, in this case I mean my true thoughts.)

I am not a particularly picky eater, but I like what I like. I am very much a carnivore.
I have claws. I actually clawed someone to get out of a very bad situation once.
I will steal over half the bed and all the covers from you, unless I’m really being well behaved. And that pillow? Say goodbye to it.

I always curl up when I sit. Right now I’m sitting with my shoes off, feet under me.

I get easily distracted by shiny things.

I like soft cushy things.

I like to watch things smaller than myself hopping innocently along. I often thing, “Hmm. I could catch that, I bet.”

I can get very, very focused. Especially when I’m hunting…erm, fencing.
See? I’m so a cat.

Except when I’m a zombie, which is what I said I was on Facebook this morning.

No mouse for awhile. Maybe she took the hint the last time I threw something at her and went outside?

Life is really good. The weekend was excellent…I kept myself hydrated, pre-took aspirin instead of waiting for the pain, and only ended up with a slight headache that kept me quiet more than anything else. I’m taking this as a sign that the walks I take outside every chance I get and the fencing are conspiring to make me a bit stronger of a person, heat wise.

I liked the zoo. Well, I liked the zoo demo better than the zoo part, I only went for a brief walk with a friend, and managed to enter the monkey house, though not go all the way through it. It was a humid day and all the animals looked resigned, to me. I get aggravated with myself for being such a soft heart, for projecting my own feelings onto the bears and apes I saw, but I cannot seem to help it. I sort of want to use my passes so that I can go and tour the whole place and really get the zoo experience, but I’m on the fence as to whether I will or not.

OK, this does not, so far, sound like I had a great weekend. But I did. Melee is coming along better. I learned so much on Saturday, and since Sunday was a demo, I concentrated on moving graceful and pretty and no, those who know about the Incident with the List Pole are not allowed to laugh. One of my newest friends actually said I made her want to learn how to fence because of how I moved.

I also managed to navigate my way home from the Pittsburgh zoo, through Pittsburgh and back to 51 – get this…without any help from maps, gas station attendants or long suffering friends! I was so geeked when I managed to get to the tunnel that I was like, “Who managed to get themselves out of Pittsburgh by herself?” I guess I was only due to get lost once that day. I also went to Tom’s Diner in Dormont, (yes, there’s a Tom’s Diner in Pittsburgh, and it’s even on the corner…and if you don’t get the reference I shall have mercy and tell you it’s a Suzanne Vega song. Also, apparently, it’s not the only Tom’s Diner in the area.) The waitress was really nice, when she went through the drinks and said that she had lemonade, I said, basically, “OMG YES SO THIRSTY.” Then, later, because I felt silly about that, explained I’d been fencing at the zoo all day, and that I would doubtless be pestering her for refills. So, when I was halfway down with the bitterest lemonade I’ve ever drank, she brought me more. I drank both glasses, even though it was really so sour that the sugar I added didn’t help, simply because she made the effort. The place has gyro meat in every section of the menu (gyro meat and eggs. Gyro omelet. Gyro salad. Gyro sub…it was like the Monty Python spam skit…) that I had…a gyro. Figured it must be their best thing, right?

Also learned that people will, point of fact, stare at you if you’re singing “If Love is a Red Dress” at the top of your lungs at a red light. They must have been as amazed as I was, about how a) in tune I was for once and b) that I could hold the note that long.

Writing is actually going well, too. One of my friends put my head back on straight for me, which I need from time to time, and I think that the story I’m writing, while not coming out exactly how I pitched it to my editor, and being written in a voice I’ve never before attempted, is doing alright. And it’s on a deadline, and I tend to work better with one of those.