And on this day

. . . I peed on a stick and it did a little dance on the bathroom sink and said "By gum, you're comepletely and totally knocked up!"

'Twas also on this day that I decided that I'd have to scrap my NaNoWriMo plans for the year because it turns out that being pregnant, at least in the early days, is all kinds of exhausting.

Of course, no one would know until December. Had to wait for that very first beautiful ultrasound before we were comfortable spreading the news far and wide.

Cell Cakes

In the 7th grade I had one of the strangest science teachers I've ever had in my educational career. I wowed him with my ability to comprehend the basics of genetics but confounded him with my inability to tell the difference between the various guts of a preserved grasshopper. (In my defense, have you seen those things? They're all black and mushy inside. Also, I think I didn't bother to read that chapter.) He shocked and amazed us all by telling us about what he and his wife did prior to conception to make sure they didn't have a fucked up kid (like quitting drinking and smoking, and drinking a lot of cranberry juice). After all of this, however, I can't remember the guy's name.

One cool thing he did was have us make cell cakes. If memory serves me correctly, I made a paramecium. I was the only kid who brought in a full-sized hand-carved homemade batter sheet cake. Viva la Betty Crocker cookbook and la momma who has always refused to use cake mixes!

This stroll down memory lane brought to you by the letter Y and by the word count 17,010, which has destroyed all but the parts of my brain that write fiction an contain long-term memories.

still fiddling

I like the orange better.

We got to have a look at the lunar eclipse last night over Casa Aztlan after dance group finished up. It was lovely.

In other news . . .

Once, years ago in an apartment on Fess in Bloomington, Indiana, I heard this song--"Psycho" by Leon Payne--and became obsessed with it. I searched for years to find a record that has a version of the song, only for a cover to turn up on the Psycho remake soundtrack. Elvis Costello has also recorded the song and I'm aghast that I missed that.

Today I'm listening to an old Radio Thrift Shop show from December 2000 and what's the last song Laura Cantrell played? "Psycho Santa" by Western Caravan. Same song, mostly, but with a holiday twist. The obsession begins again. Thankfully, the entry on the Covers Project site isn't nearly as long as the one for my other song obsession.

I just love a good murder song, or a tune about a burning ring of fire.

is this thing on?

I decided to finally get one of these blogger things, as Jennie Twizzler has one and it's damn annoying to always post anonymous comments on her blog.

So here I am. I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year (in just a few days, to be precise), but I've got too much shame or common sense to want to publish whatever comes of that anywhere before extensive editing/rewriting/kerosene and matches.

I doubt I'll have any words of wisdom here ever, but I can tell you that black cardamom seeds are great for when you've had too much Mississippi mud ice cream cake and your belly is revolting against the sugar.