The last couple of days have been filled to the brim with errand-running and stuff-doing, including (but not limited to) - grocery shopping, post-office visiting, bank dropping-by, University Book Store stock (and mail order) signing, print framing, house cleaning, laundry washing, official correspondence exchanging, outline jotting, fish tank changing, and event preparations.

That last one may have you wondering … what event?
Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already!
Here, let me refresh your memory.

This coming Thursday, at 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea on Capitol Hill,* I’ll be hanging about and signing books and basically having a marvelous time at a most excellent party being thrown by some of my awesome friends. No, seriously. Ellen, Suezie, and Psynde — these three have knocked it out of the park … and into the local establishment where there will be music, costumes, prizes, booze, caffeine, and snacks for the ordering. You can click here for details or heck, just show up some time after six o’clock and join the fray.

Bring your books and I’ll sign them if you like, or buy them at the event. Or forget the books, and just swing by to be social. I’m always happy to meet new people, and Mark Henry will be MC’ing the event. If you’ve never heard Mark MC anything, then you must absolutely not pass up this opportunity. If you have, then I’m already confident that you’ll be in attendance, unwilling to miss it.

This will be an all-ages event, since (a). it’s open to the public, and (b). Boneshaker is a bit of an adult/young adult crossover. Or so I am told. In any event, lots of young adults seem to be reading it, either by swiping it from their parents or nabbing it from a friend. Let me be the first to say I APPROVE OF THIS BEHAVIOR. Please do carry on.

Anyway. It’s coming up on suppertime here and the husband just got home from work, so I’m going to wrap this up and go get myself some noms. Thanks so much for reading, and I hope I’ll see some of you locals later on this week!

---

* Yes, I am aware that this is really a Starbucks in disguise. We tried first and foremost to run with an independent shop for this event, but we got nothing but hassle and run-around; and then the 15th Ave people stepped in. The store has been exceedingly supportive and helpful, and I’m grateful for the venue.

[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.]

Title: Hard Sell, Chapter 3
Author: Zelda Ophelia (zeldaophelia)
Fandom/Character: CSI:NY;  girl!Flack (Dawn Flack), Stella, Mac
General info: Genderbender; Not mine; T
Notes: A huge thank you to eternal_sadist, significantowl, avidbeader, and the wonderful ladies at postonthursday who helped make this fic happen.
Summary: Pre-series. Dawn Flack (not a junior, though everyone wants to add that on) is finally getting her first solo case, without her training partner to tag along. But when one death becomes three with little evidence, she's needs all the help Mac and Stella can give her to find this guy.

( Hard Sell, Chapter 3 )

I've been skimming through the mites and lice archives and I don't think that this has been covered - but my bad if it has already.

So ive just discovered that some of my rats seemed to be exhibiting signs of mites or lice. Not sure which one, anyways Ive treated them with some Revolution. as well as my mice (i have mice too). And my ferrets because I wanted to be safe.

Ive disinfected everything : cages, toys, whatever. (water+bleach, rinsed well), i have frozen the bedding. Ive washed all the fabric with bleach once, and then washed again.

now i was wondering what next. Once ive dosed them with the Revolution, do i just wait, and see if they are gone? Or do I re-dose in a couple of weeks? Ive read that they should be good after the one dose but how can i be completely sure?

I was housing them on paper towel for a little bit but they seem to really hate it. and ive been changing that every day. They already look SO much better, they seemed to be almost anemic when i first noticed they had mites/lice.

Just now i have washed their temporary cage, with dish soap, and a vinegar water solution. i guess i'll coat it with paper towels until I figure out what the best thing to do next would be.

So my main questions are:

What do you guys recommend now?
-Should i wash them with a gentle dish soap and rinse well?
Or, -should i coat them in Olive oil? Do you just leave the olive oil on? is "100% pyure cold pressed extra virgin olive oil" the right kind? (yeechhh this stuff is greasy, this should be fun)
-DO you recommend i do both? just to be safe? i am so paranoid, i really want them to be gone for good.

-When do you recommend reintroducing bedding? i have Aspen btw. And it has been frozen for more than 48 hours so far.

-Should i freeze their food?

I think thats it.

Once again sorry if this has been covered, and thanks for all your help!
I appreciate it

http://maximumverbosit.blogspot.com/2009/11/it-could-bring-me-some-fries-as-well.html

I ended up not going in to work today. (I suppose I could have forced myself to be semi-functional if I had to, but they didn't really need me for anything, anyway.) I did fall asleep on the couch for a couple of hours this morning -- not very deeply asleep, mind you, and for a while afterward I felt even groggier than I did before, but I think it did me some good in the long term, because now I only feel slightly crappy. I also managed to get caught up on most of the stuff that had accumulated on my TiVo, so, hey, sick day accomplishment!

And now apparently my body has decided that what it really needs is protein, because I have a massive craving for a hamburger. Which, needless to say, I cannot obtain without leaving the house. Damn it, where is my robot servant, and why is it not fetching hamburgers for me?

Sigh. Well, I suppose some fresh air might actually do me good...

So here I am, in New York. (Technically, as I write this, here I am, in New Jersey. It seems like I always wind up staying in New Jersey while here, and commuting to New York. This is because the East Coast is made entirely of tiny little postage-stamp states. Postage-stamp states. I realize and understand that this is a California thing, but really, I don't feel that I should be able to casually wander over state lines and not really notice.) Since arriving...

...the motor on the fridge has decided to die, filling the apartment with smoke, covering the kitchen floor with water, and triggering an impromptu dinner party, complete with enormous and only semi-expected mob. One member of the mob, upon encountering certain jet-lagged idiosyncrasies of mine, wailed, "But my Seanan List* didn't include what to do about the liver hat!" Sometimes it's nice to be me.

...visited the GINORMOUS Manhattan Apple Store, in which a charming young man at the Genius Bar was kind enough to inform me that my iPod was, in fact, dead beyond all reasonable repair. He offered to zombie it for a short period of time, but made it clear that this manner of resurrection was counter-recommended, and would probably result in an army of undead Apple products shambling around the city. As I have things to accomplish this week, I declined, and will be getting a new iPod.

...visited FAO Schwartz, home of the giant piano, and many, many, many toys. I did not actually buy any toys, largely due to their tragic dearth of dinosaurs. I judged their stock most harshly. I judged their stock most harshly with the powers of my mind. (I did not, however, judge their MUPPET FACTORY with anything beyond delight and glee. Because dude, MUPPET FACTORY.)

...went to Serendipity 3 with The Agent. We consumed frozen hot chocolate, which was amazing, and had lunch, which was less "amazing" and more "faintly horrifying." My chef's salad contained a pond's-worth of watercress, an orange, a cup of fruit salad, steamed asparagus, and avocado. This is what those of here in the real world like to refer to as "overkill." We split a sundae after eating. This, too, was overkill, but in the good way, since we received roughly enough hot fudge to replace all the mucus in the average human body.

...ate an apple cider doughnut. What the hell is wrong with some people?

...went to visit everybody at Orbit (Mira's editor). I'd already met my editor (at World Fantasy) and my contact in the marketing department (far more pleasant than Vel's Marketing Department), but it was a real treat to meet all the other folks involved in making the book a reality, including the art director who did the cover design (which is, I must admit, fucking fantastic). After our meeting, The Editor2 took The Agent and I out for lunch in Grand Central Station. Sadly, this involved cutlery and bread service, rather than hot dogs of questionable origin and things scraped off of crusty bakery trays, which is what I think of when you say "hey, let's go eat in the train station."

...passed out cold from a migraine and lost approximately sixteen hours. Because sometimes, jetlag hates me.

(*She was actually equipped with a Seanan List to assist her in surviving our encounter. Presumably this list came with a box labeled "In Case of Seanan Break Glass." The contents of the box are left to your imagination.)

How's been by all of you?

I'm sad to say that I have realized I need to rehome my four rats. I really do not want to do this but after moving out and not getting quite the pay I was hoping for, I'm realizing that if my rats get ill, which is most likely to happen, whether it but tumor or what not, I'm unable to pay their vet bills.
I have one male dumbo and 3 females. Uno, the male, is neutered and nearly 2 years old. I really feel bad for having to rehome him as this will be his 3rd home.
Breve, my siamese, is about a year, and Cybil and Toffee are about 6 and 5 months (born this past summer/spring). These three females I took in after bonding with them a bit too much at the pet store I had been working at and couldn't bare to watch them become snake food (yes I know its how things go).
Breve does tend to be a biter as i got her when she was a bit old and not used to being handled. Cybil and Toffee are total sweet hearts, as is Uno.
I'm not looking for any adoption fee, I just want them to go to really good homes, preferably together, and to someone who will be able to meet all their needs as I am now unable to, unless something changes quickly.
If anyone is in need of a second cage, I have a SuperPets cage (purple and green type http://www.smallanimalchannel.com/images/ferrets-magazine/product-spotlight/superpet-60248-bg.jpg) that's almost brand new. They've only been in it for the last two months that I'm willing to sell for $70 and I also have a ferret nation cage that they were in before I moved. The pans are pretty chewed up, but otherwise its in great condition, and I'm willing to sell it for $100 (or make an offer).

Uno and Cybil. Cybil is the more silver one.

Toffee

And Breve


x-posted to other rat communities

Edit: i'm Austin, Tx

I'd buy a light-sail ship.

The Dragon's Tales beat me to it but I worked in a Barenaked Ladies reference. Space is better with Barenaked Ladies.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/half-lifetime.html

The editor at CBS Sunday Morning asked if I had any photos of my son Mike back at the period when I first had the idea for The Graveyard Book - late 1985. I looked. We really didn't have any. I wandered next door and asked Mary (his mum, my former wife and for these last five years my friend and next-door neighbour) if she had any photos from back then. "No," she said. Then, "Do you mean those transparencies? I have them in an envelope somewhere." She vanished and came back with a large manila envelope from a long time ago. "Here."

Half a lifetime ago -- literally -- I was nearly 25, and working for magazines. Henry Fikret, who photographed a lot of the interviews I did, volunteered to take some photos of me and my family, and he did.A week later the envelope arrived, and I realised that everything he shot was on colour transparencies -- like huge slides -- and I was never sure what do with them, other than being fairly sure I couldn't take them down to Boots the Chemist and have prints knocked out. So they stayed in their envelope, and they kept their secrets, and were forgotten.

Yesterday I had the transparencies scanned, and finally got to see lots of pictures I had never actually seen before of Holly as a baby, Mike at the time that I would have watched him riding his tricycle around the graveyard, and me... at exactly half my age: A young journalist who had sold a very small handful of short stories and two non-fiction books, with dreams of writing fiction and comics. At the time I was dressing in grey, but was getting tired of the way that you would buy something grey and take it home and discover that it was a blueish grey or a brownish grey, and wondering if I'd have the same problem if I just started to dress in black.

And half a lifetime on, it seemed like it might be good to put one up here. I checked, and Mary didn't mind. What odd clothes we wore back then. What big glasses. And look, my hair is practically normal.





So long ago, and it went like the blink of an eye.

On Halloween I brought home my own little treat: Tom and Sally, two guinea pigs rescued by Windham County Humane Society in Brattleboro, Vermont. Tom and Sally are adorable together, but I wanted to make sure that we didn't end up with MORE piggies than we bargained for! So, I raised enough money through CavyMadness to have Tom neutered, thanks to the many CavyAngels who helped out with the cost of the procedure. To express my appreciation, I took some photos of Tom in my front yard.







When I brought him back inside I placed him on the kitchen table while I cut up vegetables for him and Sally. He waddled right over to my fruit bowl and started sniffing apples, so I cut him a piece. He looks like he's enjoying the apple. :)



(xposted to rubicat

Due to a massive USPS screw-up, the Dirty South Will Call didn't receive their Raven Moon and testers in time for Will Call. So, they're holding a second Raven Moon Will Call!

GA Will Call will be at Whole Foods Market, aka Harry’s Farmer’s Market, in Roswell, GA.

They will be holding Will Call on Sunday, November 15th from 5 to 8pm, inside Salud (which is inside the store.)

Whole Foods Market is located at 1180 Upper Hembree Road, Roswell, GA, 30076.

They will be holding an auction to benefit flood damaged farms in GA. Everyone who donates will receive an imp of Daya.


They will have all of the current LE’s available, along with their extensive selection of GC scents and all of the Retail-only Salon series as well.

Whole Foods accepts Visa, Master Card, Discover, American Express and cash. They will not be able to accept any preorders.

Hi folks.

I get mailings from the local Animal Humane Society and they are currently overrun with adorable rats! There are 38 kiddos on the adoption floors of the trio of shelters. Young and older, dumbo and top eared, siamese, hairless, fawn, hoodies ... some with really striking markings. A huge selection of little ratties who'd love a good home.

I'm full up with my current 9 so it's KILLING me to see these cuties.
If you've got room in your mischief and are looking for a new addition, check out the AHS!
http://www.animalhumanesociety.org/adoption?t=smallfurry&a=all&l=0&b=413&g=All&

Someone must adopt Andrew because he's slaying me.
It's horrible. ;)

Go forth and adopt!

Poll #1483520
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 79

Resolved: John Tory should become the next leader of the federal Conservative Party of Canada