cleolinda | Entries tagged with dogs

So. Much of my online life takes place on Twitter these days because I am often accessing the internet while away from my computer, and it is near impossible to tap out an entry on a phone. This is because, as I have mentioned, Sam is now mostly (but not entirely) blind and deaf, and he requires more care (help getting outside, to the water bowl, back to his blanket-bed) these days. He's happy, but he needs a lot of attention--and now that Scout has gotten really jealous and can't understand why Sam keeps bumping into him and reads it as aggression, he's started snapping at Sam. It's only gotten bad this last week, once Sam stopped sleeping most of the day and got active again. In fact, he rambles around way more than he did when he could see. So theere's a lot of watching and refereeing and wrangling that goes on if all three dogs are in the same room, and we're still working out how to handle that. We're to the point where I'm going to have to crate Scout and Shelby for a few hours sometimes, let Sam ramble around, and then tuck Sam away in the bedroom and let the big dogs out. If they can all doze peacefully in the same room, that's great. If they can all chill on the deck in dogly harmony, awesome. But if they can't, I'm going to have to put one or the other up somewhere, because I'm unable to get anything done and I'm near the point of hysteria from trying to micromanage them for eight hours at a stretch. Even my mother said, "You cannot sacrifice your life to these dogs."

( But I can totally take pictures of them! Plus a few other things to mention )

Meanwhile, the two links of greatest interest:

@SmartBitches: Have a look: think it's Poe fiction plagiarism? http://is.gd/5iV31Q http://is.gd/l2qlAB http://is.gd/bk3BIM

@McDougallSophia: @cleolinda could you maybe link to Genre for Japan charity auction? Proceeds to BRC Tsunami appeal http://genreforjapan.wordpress.com/

I'm not sure whether today is a good day or not to mention this, given that Elizabeth Taylor has passed away; this is either really heartwarming or really sad, depending on how you look at it. To update you guys on Sam... he's mostly blind now (cataracts). We've also realized that he's fairly deaf, although he can hear noises at a certain level; I suspect one ear is worse than the other, because he'll get confused and look in the wrong direction when he does hear something. He's also had a really bad spring allergy/sinus infection business that means he can't smell much, either. It's like Job's dog over here, I don't even know. I've been his seeing-eye human and primary nose-wiper, but the vet's given him an antihistamine, and now he can breathe and smell his way around a lot better. He's been more active and alert since he got it as well, which is like chasing a very fluffy toddler around, before he tries to climb over Shelby or gets stuck in another corner. But mostly, he curls up on his dog bed(s), with his blankets and/or beach towel, and just... smiles. That huffy, panting smile little dogs have, you know? He just sits there and, like... exists in a state of joy. I don't even know what to make of that.

@cleolinda: Sam's happy once he figures out where he is

Sam's happy once he figures out where he is on Twitpic

( More )I'm tired from attempting to sledgehammer out a functional draft of this chapter (which is good), so I don't really have a segue from this to anything else. So... "also, this."

@drgrist: Dude threw on scuba gear, jumped into a TSUNAMI, found his house & his wife, & saved her. I mean, damn.

I... I don't really have anything I can follow that up with.

I just realized that, once again, I've been quiet for a few days.

I hope everyone's all right; I've heard from at least one of y'all (on Twitter) who's in Japan. Speaking of which, Maureen Johnson is running another Shelterbox donation drive with plenty of book prizes; it ends tomorrow morning-ish (depending where in the world you are).

This is kind of the wrong time to be all like, "And here are the reasons why I am stressed (they do not include earthquakes, tsunamis, or nuclear reactors)," I guess. But you'll understand where I've been, anyway. ( Read more... )

I'm still on Twitter RTing links now and then, since that takes all of two seconds and very little contemplation. I'm working on a new Varney recap, maybe a book review post or two--that's what I've been doing, researching and writing--but I may or may not show up again before then. Of course, as sure as I say that I need Quiet Times, I'll be right back here tomorrow. But that's what's going on.

Before I start whining, let me give you an update on my mother. Her knee replacement surgery went wonderfully, it seems, and she was texting me by the early afternoon. I mean epic, multi-paragraph texts. ( Texts, linkspam, booze, and a poll )

ETA: I'm on the phone with Mom now, and she says she sat up in her bed, put in her contacts, put on her makeup, and painted her nails. YOU CAN ONLY HOPE TO CONTAIN HER.

I discovered yesterday that Sam has been moonlighting as a superhero fighting crime. And that his masked alter ego is... Red Panda. ( BEHOLD! )

Meanwhile, Tour of Terror III is about to culminate in the Eclipse premiere in LA on Thursday. The last I heard, the tent city comprises 350 fans (no drugs, alcohol, cooking, or amplified music, plz), and ~~OVER~~ 9000 wristbands have been passed out. (For comparison, 6000 fans showed up for that San Diego Comic-Con panel in 2008.) ( In which I troll Twitter )

Meanwhile: The Associated Press has asked me to state whether I am Team Edward or Team Jacob. It looks like you will find out on Thursday. I think I did a better job of answering than Emma Roberts did, but I am prepared to stand my ground rather than be run off Livejournal, so.

A little afternoon linkspam: ( Read more... )

I am so incredibly tired and overloaded right now. So much for the concept of weekend-as-leisure.

A few things, including pictures of Sam: ( Read more... )

So. It is time to catch up.

First of all, I have taken Betsy (my previous computer, lost to the Compocalypse) to the Data Resurrectionist, and he says that the OS (which is pretending not to exist) isn't just the problem--some of the files are corrupted as well, perhaps 10% of them, but he'll retrieve what he can. God knows how much this will cost. Footnote-writing takes on a new urgency. I wanted to have the Vampires e-book out before Eclipse, but then, I also wanted it done before last Christmas. This is something else entirely.

Meanwhile, the asshole kids down the street (we are pretty certain) have now started tampering with my stepfather's tires, creeping up to our yard and cutting off one stem valve at a time (you know, where you pump air into the tire). It costs $30 to replace a stem--and that's if you notice it. That's if your tire has helpfully gone flat while your car is still in the driveway, which is not what happened last week--rather, my stepfather was out on the interstate when the tire gave up the ghost. He could have had a blowout, could have crashed, could have been seriously hurt. As it was, the tire had to be immediately replaced. For $300. Which we so totally could afford right now.

Yeah. The police have been called. And if you're reading this, assholes, this particular officer's mother used to work with my stepfather. They know each other. He's taking it seriously. So these four tire-slashing shenanigans have been documented by the cops. When you get caught, you're going down for all of them, and your asshole parents who won't rein you in--who deny that you threw bricks onto our patio and left a ladder to climb over our fence and rang our doorbell at all hours even though we saw you running back to their house--are paying for all of it. Yeah, YOU. I hope you're reading this and you DO recognize yourself and CUT IT THE FUCK OUT. I don't care if you're fourteen. Hope you enjoy juvenile detention.

So... um. Meanwhile!

Sam has gotten his summer cut!

Let us document Sam before he gets his summer cut this weekend on Twitpic

Speaking of which, I think I must have tripped over the dogstacle course that is our house and hurt my right foot--maybe landed on my toes or the ball of my foot weirdly, or too hard--because it's been bothering me since two Wednesdays ago. Basically, since the funeral. And I've been limping a little. It doesn't feel like the bones are the problem--maybe I've pulled a muscle or a tendon? I don't know. It doesn't hurt very badly, but enough to be a pain in the ass. Well, figuratively.

A quick way to catch up on my Tumblr: The infinite-scroll photo collage archive.

Let's have a little linkspam: ( Read more... )

So! Titans are clashing very slowly for a number of reasons, one of them being that I keep getting air pressure headaches from the changeable weather, because apparently I'm one of those Old Folks who creeps around complaining about how their knee's tellin' 'em it's gonna rain. But it rained LIKE HELL last night--so hard it actually woke me up--so that ought to be settled, and also, all the pollen washed away! This is a good thing. Seriously, I walked outside yesterday morning, and the entire deck was a charming shade of yellow. Do not want.

I have pets conspiring to keep me from working, but I'm doing my best to reclaim the couch.

SOMEBODY doesn't want me to start working. on Twitpic

While we're here, I feel like we should document the current state of Sam's fluff before he gets his summer cut this weekend.

Yesterday on Tumblr I had a general blue theme, and today is mostly vampires with a little general goth thrown in. Tomorrow will be a steampunk aesthetic, I think. (While you can use Tumblr for a number of things, my current explanation for it is "Picspam: The Website.")

Meanwhile, I seem to be a nominee for a thing! Specifically, the Author Blog Awards at Completely Novel.

I am pretty sure Cleolilnda and Cleoloinda, Destroyer of Lulz, are going to go conspire against me in an evil lair somewhere (but Cleolilnda will eventually come down with a bad case of remorse and switch sides in penitence). And I hope to lose things to Neil Gaiman for many, many years to come.

More Formspring questions. Posted 3/9/10.

( Is your mom as badass as I think she is? )

I am very tired but I feel like saying things, so:

Today I left the house, amazingly enough, to get new glasses. Normally I hold off until my current pair actually falls apart on my face. The last time I had to go out and buy new ones, it was because they collapsed and died in the middle of the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie:

So I literally--and I cannot express to you how literally I mean this. I'm not abusing an oft-abused word; I mean this literally--held the left side of my glasses together by pinching the frames shut for an hour and forty-five minutes solid. I actually asked all the friends I was sitting with if they had any string, for God's sake, because I've actually tied them together before, and I'm now thinking about always carrying a little box of dental floss in my purse for that purpose from now on.

Also, Baby Shelby had left bite marks in the lenses by that time.

( So the optometrist was a little bit weird )

And now, I think I will go to sleep. Yes, before 9 pm. Because I can.

Current Mood: sleepy

Feeling a smidge better. Got a good bit of work done yesterday, even though I was stuck wrangling fussy dogs for eight hours while my parents were on a church orchestra daytrip. (Sam parked himself in front of the door out to the garage once 5 pm rolled around, because that is The Time Mommy and Daddy Come Home, and yet they did not. So he barked at it for two hours.) Today I got up and went straight to work in the den, instead of getting up and faffing around on the computer and/or sleeping on the couch (both also in the den). I'm in there anyway, usually by 7 am, because "I have to keep an eye on the dogs" is a good way to add structure to my day. ANYWAY. I'm starting a new book for my novel research (although, as I noted, there's a point where research is about finding out things, and then there's a point where it's about the fear of not having found out enough, and I've been at that second point for a long, long time now), but I'm also checking Twitter.

@scottEweinberg: This Pattinson kid is on my TV. He looks like a cross between @TheJoeLynch and a Lycan.

O rly?

Ah, the Remember Me publicity circuit has started. I had plenty of time to read my book during commercials, because as American viewers of the Olympics know, NBC is now 85% advertising content.

@cleolinda: Al Roker's outside the Today studio saying Robert Pattinson's name over and over just to hear the girls scream.

@cleolinda: Matt Lauer: "Harry Markopolous!" Herd of fangirls: "... Wooooo?"

( Wonderella refuses to save him; werewolves competed in the Olympics )

ETA: WARNING: Before you run off and buy The Great Big Werewolf Book of Werewolves, I have to warn you--the reviews on Amazon are terrible, and now that I've gotten into the actual encyclopedia-style entries, I'm starting to see why. There's an entire entry about aliens and UFOs, a really sketchy attempt to connect Elizabeth Bathory to lycanthropy (she totes hung out with wizards and vampires and werewolves, you guys!), and the tale of a French guy who was really more of a ghoul than a werewolf, see, but while we're here... And if you can tell me what Charles Manson has to do with lycanthropy, believe me, I'd love to know.

Not feeling great, but feeling less hysterically awful than I had been (see also: the last few days). So basically, I have gone from feeling "emotionally raw" to "merely fragile." Rock.

(As a side note: "Have you seen--?" Yes, I have seen it. Particularly if it is related to Twilight and came out this past weekend. Yes, I have. Yes, I have. Yes, I have. And in his defense, if I'd had as much of it thrown at my head as he has in the last two years, I'd be allergic to it too, and I HAVE one.)

I am unable to think of a segue, so: Google will let you turn Buzz off permanently now (scroll down). I mean, if you just HAVE to have your privacy, GAH.

Question for those of you going to the Neil Gaiman reading at UA later this week: is it a reading or a reading and a signing? Because either I've gone stupid (entirely possible) or the event page just doesn't say. (I don't know if there are any tickets still available, but be warned: even though tickets are free, if you don't have one, you're not getting in. They've already given out 600. It's going to be a madhouse.) If there's not a signing, that's fine; I just want to know how many hours I'm going to be standing on my feet. Because, again: madhouse. ETA: There is definitely not a signing, and it's not 600 people--it's 1200.

Meanwhile, speaking of Alabama: There was a shooting at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, and it gets weirder by the hour.

And finally: Sam is recovering nicely from his (mysteriously) hurt back foot. He is now on his third bandage boot (red again). Also, he ran out into the snow on Friday evening and made a snow angel.

Sam ran out, flopped over and made a snow angel as fast as he... on Twitpic

Current Music: The Killers - Somebody Told Me (Josh Harris remix)

Soooooooo Google has fucked up pretty bad with this new Buzz thing, in my opinion. It kind of sounded like a hybrid of FriendFeed, Google Reader, and Twitter, which I don't need because... I already use FriendFeed, Google Reader, and Twitter. If it's supposed to be like Facebook... well, I don't ever log into Facebook, so I still don't care. I mean, I'm happy for you, Google, that you have put it all under one roof, but because everyone I know who gives a shit about "microblogging" is already on Twitter but isn't necessarily on Gmail and Twitter suits me just fine, I'm going to stay over there.

Then I saw this. Apparently, Google Buzz reveals who your most frequently emailed contacts are.

You know who my third most frequent contact is?

My abusive ex-husband.

Which is why it’s SO EXCITING, Google, that you AUTOMATICALLY allowed all my most frequent contacts access to my Reader, including all the comments I’ve made on Reader items, usually shared with my boyfriend, who I had NO REASON to hide my current location or workplace from, and never did.

[...]

Oh, yes, I suppose I could opt out of Buzz — which I did when it was introduced, though that apparently has no effect on whether or not I am now using Buzz — but as soon as I did that, all sorts of new people were following me on my Reader! People I couldn’t block, because I am not on Buzz!

So now, Google Updates, Explains Buzz Privacy Setup (Lifehacker: "Does it seem to you like Google underestimated how seriously people would take having even a small part of their inboxes exposed to the world?"). There is also a privacy checklist on MSNBC. Quite honestly, I am more worried about the privacy of my contacts than my own right now; I went through that Lifehacker link's instructions to turn that shit off and discovered that I had already opted to lock down my profile fairly securely (and not filled much of it out, in fact) a while ago. What freaked me out was the idea of people being able to see who I email and then possibly going off and bugging them, and I won't get into why this is a concern for me (and them), but it is. So I'm turning this shit off until Google gets its act together, because, judging by that first blogger's experience, it is (or was) a privacy-invading, Catch-22 clusterfuck. If you want to opt out as well, go to your Gmail inbox, very bottom of the page, and look for "turn off buzz" in the tiniest letters possible. Assholes.

(Seriously, can someone explain to me what the sweet hell Google was thinking?)

ETA: A more thorough Buzz-remover from CNet. Just turning it off doesn't fix everything.

P.S. It has been pelting down snow for a couple of hours now. Also, Sam went to the vet for a foot checkup, and now he has a red boot.

I hate not posting regularly, but I'm not doing so well this week. It's just a bad week. First of all, poor Sam has somehow hurt his foot--one of his back right toes is swollen about twice the size of the others. This made him sad.

We took him to the vet and they gave him an X-ray (I do not even want to contemplate how much that cost), but it's not broken. So I don't know what he did, but he hurt it. And it didn't seem to be getting better, so on Monday (I think it was?) we took him back to the vet, and they put a boot on him. We've just managed to keep it from abscessing, so we're going to have to take him back for regular follow-ups.

Sam has a boot for his little hurt toe on Twitpic

So now he's frisking around on three legs, holding the hurt foot up as he goes, happy as can be. It's the saddest, funniest thing you've ever seen.

Meanwhile, I've been feverish for a few days, and even managed to have one of those dried-out-sinus nosebleeds. Coughing a bit as well. Spent much of Tuesday in tears, just... because. I don't know. It probably doesn't help that the 13th is the twelfth anniversary of my father walking out on us. ( Read more... ) The bad news is that now I have enough mental energy to start getting depressed about Valentine's Day again. I love Valentine's Day. It's one of the three Aesthetic Holidays, as I think of it, the other two being Halloween and Christmas--holidays where just the atmosphere and the decorations and all the trappings are kind of awesome. It's hearts and flowers and chocolate, y'all! Yeah, it's overcommercialized, but so is everything else, so whatever. You take the stuff you like and you ignore the stuff you don't. And I've never had anyone to spend Valentine's Day with. Never. Which is the fun part of Valentine's Day. And I'm finally over the whole walking-out thing enough to feel sad about it again.

I'm just kind of tired of life at this point, is what I'm saying. I don't mean that in a scary way. Just a "curled up on the couch with a low fever" kind of way.

Meanwhile, let me re-run a shortened version of what I posted on Tuesday, from

rachelmanija: "

helptheproject is to benefit the Virginia Avenue Project, a free after school arts and academic mentoring organization in Los Angeles.... The auction has some really cool items on offer, including gift boxes of local treats from all over the USA, home-made baked goods, fanfic and fanart, and signed books and/or offers to name a character after you by Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon's Lexicon), Elizabeth Wein (The Winter Prince), Sarah Monette (Melusine), N. K. Jemisin (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms), and many more, including yours truly."

So all the snow was supposed to come yesterday, and it was nice and swirly but the temperature was above freezing so it didn't stick, and it was kind of lame and nothing really happened.

Then I looked up from my computer this morning sometime after 8 am, and we've got a minor blizzard going.

Snowfari 2010, featuring Scout and Shelby:

( Read more... )

Lots of sad and serious things in the news today, but I don't really know how to talk about all of that this point. All I can say about the Detroit incident is that I'm going to focus on the positive and be glad that the bomb didn't go off, it's a Christmas miracle, etc.

I was really tense all day, but Christmas went reasonably well. ( Sam says hi )

So: what was your favorite present, and/or what did you do today?

Oh, P.S. I put up A Very Shelfy Christmas, Part 1 yesterday.

Ran a low fever today, because apparently we are still on this. I'm spinning my wheels on New Moon between cough syrup-induced comas and not getting anything done. Outstanding. And tomorrow being Happy Eating Day, I doubt I'll get much else done then, either. God, I want my life back.

Hm. Well, I think what we need is some cute. If you are in the Homewood/Birmingham (AL) area, there is a three-month-old puppy at our vet's who is in need of a home. They have dubbed him "Snoopy," but obviously he could be renamed:

Also, here is Sam home fresh from his bath this morning:

Now to decide if I want to pass out again or not.

(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

Current Mood: working

... on THAT OF WHICH WE DO NOT SPEAK:

I went on another photo safari (this seems to be a new Saturday morning tradition), this time at Hobby Lobby, a terrifyingly huge artsy-craftsy emporium. (The reason the photo safaris happen on Twitter is because you can take a picture on your phone and email it straight to TwitPic from there, which then appears automatically on your Twitter feed.) I mean, I spent fifteen minutes in that thing and I am ready to craft THE SHIT out of something. You take TLE there, he'll think he's died (again) and gone to heaven. Note on photos: we did not even get into any of the vertical aisles at the store. This is simply the shallow end of the pool.( Read more... )

Back to work. Apparently the best part of the movie (minus John Cusack's best line) is online completely legally. Enjoy.

(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

I know people for whom Friday the 13ths are actually lucky; I am not one of them. But--knock on wood--so far, things are going pretty well.

( SPARKLEMAS COMES EARLY THIS YEAR )

BREAKING NEWS: SHIRT-ALLERGIC JACOB KEN DOLL. ARE YOU FOR REAL. WHAT IS THIS. I DON'T EVEN. FUHHHHHH.

(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

( that's a really low branch are we sure it's dead )

( Look, I will sell my blood plasma to pay you NOT to bring that home and give it to me )

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Cleolinda everywhere

Classy dame, sparkle consultant, gothic enthusiast, sporadic recapper.

Entries tagged with dogs

This and that

Sam picspam

Checking in

Many updates

A few things

flop

Checking in with links

Checking in

Twenty questions (3)

flop

Apparently I feel chatty today

Checking in

ALERT ALERT ALERT

FYI

Good thing I have those gloves

Happy Non-Denominational Giftmas and/or Day Off Work!

Sigh

While I work...

Friday the AWESOMETEENTH

Two stories

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June 2024

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