koga said "Reply to this post, and I will list three things I love about you. Maybe more than three. Then repost to your own journal and spread the love."

I said: "Me!"

He said: "1: You are passionate, burning brightly when you have inspiration.

2: You are hard. You have a razorblade in your mind that comes out when
threatened or presented with a hard choice. Come the zombie apocalypse, I
better have a verifiable worth to your party or I'm gonna be left at the
AM-PM with a serious mortality problem.

3: You are compassionate. You raise orphan kittens. You'd probably leave
me one bullet to use as I see fit."

I said: "I approve!"

Abstract Thoughts has been updated with The Accidental Hiatus. It's been a very busy month. ( Read more... )

The princess watched as the two men fought within the circle of onlookers. The one she loved used her father's own knife and the one she hated used a barbaric bone knife. They would decide the fate of the empire. She did not turn away even though she knew the outcome of this fight before it began.

As if summoned by her thought, the interloper struck and his dagger came up, imbedding itself deep in the soft underside of her beloved's jaw. She glanced at her father, his face ashen in the knowledge that his empire would be turned over to the man who just murdered his would-be son-in-law.

"Majesty, your force is reduced by one. Shall we shed this sham and pretense? Shall we now discuss what must be? Your daughter wed to me..."

She stopped listening then. Her minded raced. She was the only one left who could save the honor of her father's legacy. This was for more than king and country. This would be her last, and most important, duty. As this man's wife (but never his love) she had the chance to ensure that her father's work would not be lost to a victor's version of history.

Looking up, she saw the rage in her father's face. She had to stop this now. Mustering all of the regal elegance her blood afforded her, Princess Irulan, eldest daughter of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV, stepped forward, touched her father's arm and spoke, "For this I was trained, Father."

His glance was sharp but, in that instant, he seemed to understand what his daughter was doing. On the surface, she was acquiescing but underneath, she was planning. She hoped he understood. From this moment forward, she was no longer his daughter but Paul Muad'Dib Atreides' loyal wife.


sy4 -- duty, honor, country (Dune)

Me: Back from the vet

Friend: How is he?

Me: Well enough but having a reaction to the surgerical glue. Now he's on antibiotics.

Friend: Goodness!

Me: Fortunately, it's in powder form that we can mix in with baby food.

Friend: Nice.

Me: And no head cone or onesie required.

Friend: Yayyyyy.

Me: No kidding. The antibiotic is twice a day. So, 10am and 10pm. No 5am wake up to fight with a kitten who doesn't want his medicine.

Friend: LOL

I had a long chat with my co-editor over at Morrigan Books about the Grants Pass anthology. She showed me the cover layout she wants to do for the anthology and I love it. It helps knowing how she wants to do it. Plus, she's given me a couple of tasks beyond looking at her edit critiques of the current stories. These tasks include an updated bio, a foreword to the anthology, an afterword to my particular story and my acknowledgements/dedications for the book.

Let me repeat a couple of those... Write a foreword to the anthology and my acknowledgements/dedications for the book.

Dude.

This is real.

I am writing my official 'thank you's and such for my book! Excuse me while I vibrate over here for a moment.

I'm waiting until August first to turn in three bits of fiction:
1. Asta's Choice for The Phantom Queen Awakes
2. A Bite to Remember for The World is Dead
3. 105 Freaky Friday Fictions manuscript to Morrigan Books

I'm waiting for an agent to get back to me.

I'm waiting until tomorrow when we can open the doors and gates to Pharaoh. He's stir crazy at all the confinement and I'm stir crazy at being forced to stay home, watch him and make sure he doesn't pop his stitches again.

I'm waiting until tonight to give the kitten his last draught of medicine.

I'm waiting for the oven to finish cooking my lunch.

The timeline for yesterday and today...

12:30pm - Regular vet visit. Pharaoh looks good. Vet looks him over. Looks the incision over. Perfect.

8:30pm - I notice the incision looks a little red.

9:00pm - Jeff gets home and I tell him not to take the cone off the Pharaoh. He looks at Pharaoh and says, "I'm taking him back to the emergency vet." I look and about half of the incision has popped open.

10:0pm - Jeff is home with Pharaoh. None of the interior stitches were harmed. The vet re-glued the incision back together.

3:30am - I get home.

4:00am - I hear licking and discover Isis has Pharaoh on his back and is licking his belly. It looked like just the lower half but Isis gets punted from the room.

11:00am - Jeff and I talk. We decide to take the advice of a friend and we do ( something drastic (photos) )

I just got my pendants from chimera_fancies and they are even more gorgeous than their pictures. I fully-fully recommend Mia's work. It is just gorgeous.

I am going to start wearing these as my LARP character, Madison. The pendants I bought are:





I've already started talking to my husband about getting some custom-made for us. They are made from cut up books. Obviously, the custom-made ones would be from the Dark Tower series. I can already see them:

1. Front: The man in black fled across the desert, Back: and the gunslinger followed
2. We are well met on the path
3. Ka is a wheel
4. I have not forgotten the face of my father

Of course, now I'm thinking of others...

Dune - The spice must flow
Firefly - I aim to misbehave
Star Wars - I've got a bad feeling about this

Pharaoh is starting to really do well. I'm a little concerned about his water consumption but I have a syringe and am not afraid to use it. Plus, I'll take him to my regular vet soon for a check up. No worries there. I think we have a routine for the medicine - 5am, 1pm and 9pm. That 5am one is brutal but most of the time he is not awake enough to fight it. It's nice that he has the strength to fight but, come on, it's only 1ml of nasty tasting liquid.

Jeff got a great picture of the twins. Obviously, Pharaoh is the one in the cone.

I've figured out what my next weekly fiction project will be. It is called "3 for 300" and, in short, you will give me three words to work with and I will return you a flash fiction story of exactly 300 words. It may be a rework fairy tale. It may be an interesting POV from a movie. It may be like a Freaky Friday Fiction story. It may be based on a true story or memory. I have no idea how long these will go. Give me 3 words. I will give you 300 in return.

What 3 words will you give me?

Good examples:
1. Dog, cat, heaven
2. Destruction, mayhem, plague
3. Lord, tower, fall

Bad examples:
1. Ring of fire - unless you want to the specific three word phrase. Then put quotes around it: "Ring of Fire" or "The lovelorn lover" but even this latter is iffy.
3. Prepositions like: The, of, at, upon, etc... unless it is part of a phrase.


Poll #1225784 3 for 300
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None

What 3 words will you give me?

4 of 21 doses of medicine given to Pharaoh. This is going to be a long week.

1 of 7 days of being a headcone kitty. This is going to be a REALLY long week.

5 hours of sleep gotten in the last 24.

1 nap taken because I couldn't stay awake.

2 of 5 days of antibiotics taken.

2 doses of cough syrup taken. My throat still hurts.

10 hours of Pharaoh meowing to have the head cone taken off. (He's sleeping the other 14.)

3000 words written on my jilted lover revenge story set in a post apocalyptic zombie world. Draft zero completed.

2 stores that Jeff has called from because he is indulging me with cake but not finding the white cake with vanilla icing I want. I totally owe him one next time he's sick.

Pharaoh is home!

He is to be a conehead kitty for the next week. This will be hilarious but we will not laugh.

He is taking his medicine like a champ.

He is a mess. OMG, I didn't know Hospital Kitty had a smell. He does. I hope Isis bathes him. Everything but the stitches.

No running, jumping or playing for at least a week. This means he is to be locked up in my office with me. He gets his medicine every 8 hours. He can't eat or drink for an hour before or after the medicine. He also needs to be fed every 60-90 minutes.

It is going to be a LONG week.

But, my baby is home.

Just got back from the hospital. I don't have strep throat from what they can tell but the symptoms and pains are close enough that they are treating me for it anyway. Of course, my nurse practitioner suggested that I don't wait a week next time. My antibiotics run for the next five days.

Oh, and I just got paid for Chill. This check, of course, is dedicated to paying for my wayward, toy-eating kitten.

Pharaoh - out of surgery, doing well enough but there is a small chance of fluid in his lungs. We will visit him today as, most likely, he will be there one more night.

Me - sick. Still. Bad enough that I called the hospital for an appointment. They are calling me back. I hope they call soon. This sore throat and swelling uvula is for the birds.

Jeff - worried but good.

House - a mess but still standing

Work - is work


How I'm coping? 1700 words on a jilted lover revenge story set in a post apocalyptic zombie infested world.

Pharaoh is in surgery now. We visited him at the vet first. He was so glad to see us. Please send your best for my little guy.

This morning I asked Jeff to call the vet. I seem to be losing my voice. He came back with "No vomiting. They are going to feed him to 'move things along' in his system." Basically good news. While I was joking with Jeff about paying for the world most expensive turd, Jeff's phone rang.

It was the vet. Seems the front desk guy had not been up-to-date.

They fed Pharaoh at 2am. He vomited everything up at 6am, including more plastic. At this point, they are pretty sure that the unidentified mass in his intestine is cloth. We've authorized an ultrasound. Surgery is looking more and more likely.

We'll be visiting him this afternoon.

In the meantime, my heart is breaking and Isis is driving everyone to distraction demanding to know where her brother is.

Volume 31: July, 2008

Hello everyone!

Volume 31 of The Edge of Propinquity has been published! As the summer months heat up, so do our stories. This month, we have a near miss, revenge taken, a sacrifice made, hope given and a warning proclaimed.

Kendrick - The Past and the Present Collide by Jennifer Brozek AKA gaaneden
While Karen and John grapple with the reappearance of Aaron in Kendrick and his newfound friendship with David, a great victory is made against the Children of Anu at the ultimate sacrifice of one.

Luminations - Signing by Rick Silva AKA shaharazad
Katy McCormick has completed her freshman year in college, and she's landed a summer job at a mall bookstore. She's looking forward to a dull and uneventful summer where the worst danger she faces will be from the crowds at the Harry Potter release party. But when she's assigned to help out a local author with a book signing, Katy finds that past dangers have a way of resurfacing, and her summer is off to a decidedly eventful start.

Santa Maria - Storms by James M. Sullivan AKA sylvan
While a storm rages down on Santa Maria, Helen comes to her daughter's aid, Ant and Rod try to find a little peace, and those who remain set about to finding answers; though it is Diasuke who is successful when an old friend tells him of an entirely different storm.

Vorare - Hands of Glory by Ivan Ewert AKA ivan23
Gordon finds a crack in the Ally's power, a crack which might promise redemption from the service of his wound. Yet in pursuing that secret agenda, has he fallen further into the demonic nets?

Guest Author - Birth of a Hunter by Dylan Birtolo AKA eyezofwolf
With the murder of his friend and mentor, Gabriel is set upon the path of destiny. As part of that journey, he must hunt down this murderer and retrieve what was stolen. However, just as Gabriel is, the murderer is more than he seems.


Have you ever looked over the edge and seen something looking back at you?

Thanks!
Jennifer
Chief Cat Herder
The Edge of Propinquity
starkytten@yahoo.com

Good news - He's not throwing up and the mass has moved more.

Bad news - Needs to stay overnight. No bowel movements. Still nauseated.

Next up - Call tomorrow between 10am and 12pm to determine if an ultrasound and/or surgery is needed. The hope is that the mass will "float" out with all the IV fluids.


Isis is back to wailing for her brother. I know how she feels.

Sunday morning, around 11am, Pharaoh vomited bile. I though, "Hmm. Kitten might have a hairball." So, I gave him petrimalt. And I thought all was well. Around 3pm, he threw up again... and again around 5:30pm. This last time, it had bits of plastic that looked suspiciously like the innards of a toy mouse. At 8pm, he refused to eat. Cue worried glances. Around 11pm, we saw him drinking and that was a good sign. I told Jeff, "If he's not eating and not playing tomorrow, off to the vet he goes."

11:30pmish, Pharaoh made that distressed yarking meow announcement of "I AM NOT HAPPY" that we have not heard since the first week we had him. Up came all the water he drunk 30 minutes before.

Fuck.

I'm on the computer looking for a 24 hour emergency vet. There is only one in the Seattle area and they are close by. I called them and they told me to bring him in. So, off we come with cat in carrier, books in tow for a midnight visit.

The result of that is that Pharaoh has a suspicious mass/gas/bubble/THING in his intestines that cannot be easily identified and in the second set of x-rays, it seems to be moving. So, fluid under the skin and some cat pepicide to calm his tummy with orders of no food or water for at least 4-6 hours. Then little water at a time, etc. Call in the morning for results of x-rays.

Bed at 2am. Cue that distressed yarking bark/meow and vomiting all over the bedroom floor at 5am. I'm up at 9am to call about the x-rays. He is listless, not wanting to play and generally unhappy. I call the emergency vet, tell them the situation and discover they haven't had time to get the results from the x-rays from the East coast. They tell me to bring Pharaoh back in.

And, here I am, in a cold room with an unhappy kitten who looks tired and uncomfortable.

I know how he feels.

20 minutes later...

Pharaoh is purring and trembling. I've never seen him do that. The doctor just came in and said that it does appear to be something in his intestines. She says the trembling is a sign of pain and the licking of the lips was a sign of nausea. So, what they're going to do is IV fluids to try to "float" it out. I should know if this will work by 5pm. If not, surgery. Jeff and I have authorized this. We've spent $1000 on Pharaoh in the last two days and it will be more. Guess it's a good thing I paid off the carpet. That 'extra' money now goes to my sick kitty.

20 minutes later...

Home now. Isis is calling and calling and calling for her brother. Her wails hurt me. I want him home, too. I'm a lot messed up over this. Pharaoh is my baby.

Back to the vet. Pharaoh is no better. Now I'm worried. Any good vibes for my kitten are appreciated.

(This one goes under "Adventures with Kittens" AKA "What the hell did you eat this time?")