The Return of the King

No, I'm not talking about Aragorn. As you can probably guess from the picture.

I was in the kitchen, warming up leftovers in the microwave. Lasagna that I made earlier in the week. Yum.

Dave was in the sunroom. "Psst," he said, standing real still. "C'mere."

Molly was right there in the kitchen with me, so I figured it wasn't for some wanton sunroom nookie.

"Bring your camera," he added.

As I said, Molly was right there, so it couldn't have been for some kinky sunroom pornography.

While I was extricating my camera from my purse, Molly eased herself out into the sunroom. "Omigod!" she said. "He's back!"

I turned the camera on, slo-mo'd around the corner and there he was, right on the deck, licking up the spilled seed from the bird feeder. It was Woody the Woodchuck, king of the backyard. And has he ever grown!

For those of you who haven't known me for that long, Woody took up residence under our deck last year. You can read about it and see pictures of him here. And here.

We all stood and watched while his royal fatness sashayed down the steps, across the walk and through the little decorative fence into the flower bed. He moseyed around for a minute and then found some tasty plants and settled down to dinner.

"Let's go outside," Molly said, so she and Dave went out on the deck. Woody hurried over to the fence and paused, posing for me to take a few more pictures. But as the humans got closer, he motored back across the walk and disappeared under the deck with a flash of his furry tail.

Now I'm pondering. Do we dig out the Repels All and the ammonia-soaked rags and stuff them into Woody's hole? A lot of the discussion boards suggest human urine as a wild animal repellent, even for bears. Are you listening, Tartlet? Do I get Dave to go out there after dark and pee? Should I squat there myself?

Or do I follow the example of my Muddy buddy and leave the critter be? Of course Mud has a whole bunch of woodchucks in her backyard in spite of three dogs racing around peeing on everything. I don't think I want a whole bunch of woodchucks. Even calling them groundhogs and giving them cute names like Gus and Punxatawney Phil doesn't make them all that desirable.

For now, I guess we'll leave his chubby majesty alone. But if he starts burrowing in the flower beds, no guarantees.

Watch here for news of a royal beheading. :)

Versatile Blogger Award

Does being versatile mean that you can't commit? Or perhaps that you need to be committed?

Many thanks to the lovely Rosie Lane for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger award. I feel so honored.

At least I did until I googled it and found there are 3,120,000 other versatile bloggers. I'm one in a million, right? Or to be more accurate, one in three million.

What the award means in practical terms for me is that I must share seven things about myself, preferably interesting, and then pass the award on to *insert random number here, depending on who you listen to* other bloggers.

Since Rosie mentioned in her nomination that I can write a haiku about anything, I've decided to share seven *possibly* interesting haiku facts about me.

1. My degree is in

Chemical engineering

Met lots of guys there

2. I went to law school

Became a divorce lawyer

It majorly sucked

3. I like doing crafts

I once knit Dave a sweater

It fit me better

4. It's impossible

To haiku re addictive

Personality

5. Don't come for dinner

I am a terrible cook

Less fun than chem lab

6. I play the keyboard

In a praise band in my church

Mostly I fake it

7. I'm a space cadet

Real life isn't as good as

The world in my head

So there you have it. Now on to my nominations, of which I have five, in no particular order. Maria Zannini, Nicole Laurent, Muddy Meanderings, Mom Saga, and More Notes from the Refrigerator Door. Some of you have been taking a bit of a summer vacation from your blogs. You know who you are, and it's fall now, time to get back to them. :)

In order to accept this prestigious award and join me as one in three million, you must, according to one set of official rules:

1. Thank the award-giver(s) and link back to them in your post.

2. Tell your readers seven (7) things about yourself.

3. Give this award to up to fifteen (15) recently discovered or favorite bloggers.

4. Contact those bloggers and let them in on the exciting news.

So thanks again, Rosie, and go get 'em, bloggers!

Gluttons for punishment?

Facebook has changed its format again.

And damn! How annoying! Some computer algorithm somewhere decides what my top stories are. And there's no way to get rid of them, at least, not an easy way.

Everyone's in an uproar. How dare they?!

What we all should do is go somewhere else for our social networking. But, you might ask, where?

I have no idea. There's no place else where all my friends are. And vampire wars.

So, grumbling all the way, I'll put up with it. Sooner or later I'll get used to it.

Just in time for the next set of changes... :(

Addiction, thy name is me

I may have mentioned once or twice that I'm an addictive personality. When I started playing Vampire Wars, it was all vamps all the time. Same thing with Treasure Madness and Zoo World. For the better part of 2010 I spent 8 hours a day or more online playing games.

Recently I've given up all the computer games except VW, and I'm back under the thrall of a lifetime addiction: reading. I've been re-reading my way through some of my favorite detective/ thriller series, like John Sandford's Prey series, and now Jeffrey Deaver's Lincoln Rhymes.

Of course in between I've been reading some of the newer paranormal romances and urban fiction. Some I love, and some, not so much. And I'm waiting for the new releases of some of my very favorite series: JD Robb's Eve Dallas and Lee Child's Reacher. So many good books.

So if I'm not around as much as usual, you can most likely find me in my comfy chair, completely oblivious to the world, lost in fiction, in fantasy, in mystery, suspense, romance.

It's way better than RL.

Ten years ago

The events of ten years ago today are too painful to remember, and yet too important to forget.

I still can't bear to talk about it, to see news coverage, to think about it. And I didn't even lose a loved one. Yet my life, along with everyone else's in this country and around the world, was irrevocably changed.

It still hurts.