Coming Soon!

Jiang Li, Warrior Woman of Yueh is the companion novella to My Adventures As Brother Rat. Jiang Li is now available; for a signed copy, please contact me via my website Contact Me button. Price is $7.00 plus s/h of $2.20 for envelope and postage, or $4.90 for Priority Mail (6 copies will fit in a Priority Mail envelope).

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Rainy Day and the Green Lush

Palo Verde Tree

Rainy Day and her Sister of Choice, Kay, have once again hit the road. We left the Tri Cities Friday morning, and drove all day (not so bad when there are two drivers to share the load. We arrived in Scottsdale the next day, and are staying in a delightful motel, The 3 Palms. The reason for the trip is to spend a couple of weeks with Kay’s son, Mark, who has just gotten home from some serious surgery. Rainy Day is delighted to state he is doing well and looking good! He goes in to see the doctor today to possibly have all of his stitches removed.  Rainy Day volunteered to go to Office Depot and buy a staple puller; he grimaced and declined her offer. I wonder why!

Prickly Pear with Pears

On the way to Scottsdale, we noticed the long winter, and cold spring has made for some lush green countryside. Utah, normally brown by now, at least where we traveled, was a lush green. The grasses were green, the shrubs were green – very beautiful!


Desert Duster

When we crossed into Arizona, all the Saguaro cacti were budding out, a few were in bloom. The Joshua Trees were lush and fuzzy (can you picture green Tribles on fuzzy sticks;-), some were blooming – long stalks coming from the top with flowers at the end. Looked a bit like Yucca only fewer flowers at the end. The Yucca and Prickly Pear were also in full bud and some bloomed. Made me think of Daddy’s short story, And The Desert Shall Blossom. Alfred Hitchcock bought it, and it is available on DVD, Season Four.


Singing Cardinal

Although some of the days will be a tad over 100, most will be high 90s or low 100s. However, it’s a dry heat, or so they keep telling me. Actually, it’s rather pleasant at the moment but this is the monsoon season (if the dust don’t get ya, the monsoons will) so we get rain, which a dry heat does not make.

Rainy Day did get to go to one of her most favorite places in the whole wide world – the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. She calls it the Cactus Garden because most of the plants are cactus – and ALL desert plants have thorns! Even if it isn’t a cactus, it’ll reach out to stab you if it gets a chance. Honest. Trust me.
 

Saguaro with Fruit and Two Birds

Rainy Day has tried, several times to log onto her Charter Web Mail, and can’t get on, and when she calls, she gets a busy signal. However after much perseverance, and a few blue to purple words, Rainy Day finally got through and talked to the nicest young man, Fred. He was very patient and helpful, especially after Rainy Day threatened suicide, and informed her the old password she had been using for years was no longer valid. It seems Charter had 'enhanced' their system and made oh-so-much better. So, after she finally got onto her web mail, she tried to log onto her blog once again. She had to go through the rigamarole of getting a new password there, too, but since she could get the email from Google, she did it, and finally can update her blog.

Saguaro Skeleton
Rainy Day is not too sure that she really likes computers. When they work, they work very, very well. When they don't work, they are blue word awful!



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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

hello. my name is tashiko akuma pestini

this is me taking a break from typing this blog

I’m the queen of the house. my staff consists of lenora, who feeds me – when she remembers – and who makes, and breaks promises. like when the last dog left, and she promised, there would be no more dogs, and now there is this annoying little dog named paco belle who sleeps in my bed with my person. lenora calls her a pit bullet, I call her pest.

anyhow, lenora, who sometimes remembers to feed me – and the pest – has been working on writing a novel. I, of course, have no idea what a novel is, but suspicion it’s something she holds in her hands while in bed, and gets irritated at me if I get between her and whatever it is she keeps looking at. she keeps saying she needs to get her blog updated, and finally, just to get some peace and quiet, and not listen to her whine and whimper, I have decided to write an entry or two for her.

maybe she’ll purr for me now.

better yet, maybe she’ll see I’m really very important, and get rid of the barking pest.

oh, dear. lenora is coming back from her writer’s meeting. I need to get this posted. do you think she’ll be surprised when she reads it. do you think she’ll get rid of the dog. do you think she will realize I am truly a queen and start treating me like one. do you think she’ll remember to feed me. please tell her what a good job i did. and tell her to get rid of the dog -- and to feed me.


this is me in my favorite place. don't i have gorgeous blue eyes.