Some of you may remember that earlier this year, giving way to the many, many demands to find Noelle a vamp to call her own, I did, in fact, break down and write a novella for her. That novella, Shades of Gray (no relation to the risque novel of a similar name), will be out at the end of September, and since I can now share the cover for the anthology that includes Noelle's novella, I thought I'd do just that.

I'll put up a tiny little excerpt for the novella soon, but until then, you can read a bit more about Noelle and her vamp on my website.

Cast your mind back about twenty-five or so years. Way back then, I was a student at the University of Washington studying--of all things--physics and astronomy. And one of the things I badly wanted to learn was the Russian language. Why? I have no idea. I'm not sure I even knew then, and I certainly don't know now. I simply remember that I wanted to learn Russian.

For two happy undergraduate years, I frolicked with the Russian language. I was Katya, and I was quite happy to tell all those pesky Young Republicans who hung out on campus soliciting voters to join their flanks that I was studying Russian *and* astrophysics, and then watched with great pleasure when, sputtering something about patriotism, they cautioned me against ever visiting the (then still Soviet Union) while in possession of Valuable American Scientific Knowledge.


MY FIRST YEAR RUSSIAN TEXTBOOK

Fast forward a couple of decades. The sum total of the Russian I could remember were pithy phrases like "Today, I have no mind" and "My name is Katya. I am an American student. Would you like to buy my valuable physics secrets?"

Now, I've always been fascinated with learning another language. And I have a small, very, very small smattering of many languages, usually just a few phrases because as we all know, I have the memory of maple syrup. And while I enjoy the process of learning languages (hence my desire to learn Greek last year, which failed when it became clear that Rosetta Stone's method of teaching was not working well with my brain), previous attempts of learning on my own have forced me to face the fact that I'm one of those people who really need an actual class with an actual instructor, and more importantly, actual interaction to learn languages.


ACTUAL PAGE WITH NOTES FROM RUSSIAN TEXTBOOK SHOWING THAT AT SOME POINT IN MY LIFE, I UNDERSTOOD THIS STUFF.

And since I'm busy writing books, and live in the boonies, and am a shy little hermit who refuses to go to metropolitan areas like downtown Seattle in order to attend such classes, I've had to simply wander the house with my arms flailing about vaguely while muttering things like, "Man, I wish I could speak French. Or Greek. Or Russian. Hey, I used to speak Russian!"

A few days ago, I decided to give the ole language-learning part of my brain another shot at showing its quality. But this time, I was going to attend an actual class. And rather than going for a language that was new to me, I'd go back to my old love, and try to resurrect the Russian that must surely still be stashed away somewhere in my brain.

Starting May 21s, I'll be attending an (online, true, but with streaming video hookups) ACTUAL LIVE RUSSIAN CLASS. My brain may never be the same.

Oh, and if you'd like some valuable undergraduate astrophysics secrets from 25+ years ago, let me know. I've still got the paper I wrote about the black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

I should be writing today. But then I caught sight of my inbox, and even though I cleaned it out just a couple of months ago...well, the screen grab below says it all.



*sigh*

This is why I ask for patience when writing to me. My inbox sometimes becomes quite unruly and threatens me with bodily harm if I don't prune it down to a manageable level. Guess what I'm going to be doing today instead of writing? And can your inbox beat up my inbox, or is yours in proper shape, the shape that indicates you are not only in control, but organized to boot?

I know what we can do on this arrived-way-quicker-than-is-seemly Monday...let's play a rousing game of Spot the Sun-Loving Dog.

Yes, my idiot boy dog loves lolling about on the deck on a sunny day. Except for the, you know, actual part of being OUTSIDE.

I know some of you have been waiting patiently for this, and I apologize for it being seventeen days late. But hey, it has a hunky guy on it--worth waiting for, yes?




Second Quarter Wallpaper (right click on the image size you want and save it to your desktop)

Sizes available:

• 1024x768
• 1600x1200
• 1900x1200

Those of you who follow my posts on Facebook know two things: one, I recently had a birthday, and two, I celebrated said birthday with a week long party with five of my friends. I thought I'd share some of that fun with you all.



Amongst those friends is my darling agent Michelle (in the red jacket), who I was delighted could spend almost the whole week with us.

We had all sorts of fun during the week. One member of the party, Sara (of Looming Moon), was most excited to see groceries being delivered.



OK, I may have egged her on to take a picture with the truck, and the driver didn't quite know what to make of her plastering herself to it, but it was a perfect way to start the week.

The dogs loved having new people to molest.



White Girl especially loved going on walks with people between bouts of rain.

The lemon drops I mentioned on Facebook?



Yeah, we had a full counter of booze and snackies. The lemon drops were divine.

We played an awesome game that involved drawing phrases, and having the next person guess what the drawing was supposed to be (the game is called Telestrations, by the way. I highly recommend it).

Here's my guess of one of darling agent Michelle's drawings:



And the next person's rendition of my guess (slightly enhanced so as to remove the naughty part)



Lots and lots and lots of spinning (of yarn) went on during the week. We even taught darling agent Michelle how to spin.



[And yes, we sat around in our jammies most of the time.]

It was a glorious week of non-stop fun and frolics and my dogs waking people up at five in the morning. And of course, fish crossing signs.



Photos courtesy of Vin and Sara and my mother.

I realize that the first quarter of the year is almost gone (man, where DOES the time go?), so this wallpaper won't be enjoyed for long, but in the spirit of better late than never, I've uploaded the Yacky wallpaper for those of you who wish to enjoy him. It. The wallpaper. *cough*

As usual, the wallpaper is available in three sizes: 1900x1200, 1600x1200, and 1024x768. You can download one or all of the sizes on the Katie Mac Wallpaper Page o' Manly Goodness.

In a few weeks it will be my birthday. I decided last year that I was going to give myself a really big birthday present this year--I am going to host a party with a bunch of friends.

For a week.

In my house.

And while all five of the visiting friends are excited about our week o' fun, filled with events such as:

• Pride and Prejudice Day
• Coloring Day
• Henna Tattoo Day
• Tiara-making Day
• Dr. Who Day
• Eat Sundaes For Dinner Day
• Teach Darling Agent Michelle to Spin Yarn Day

it occurred to me that in order to fit five extra people into my house, I'd have to organize my stuff. So I did. And now, when I need to find something, I can't.

And this is why cleaning is bad for you.

I rest my case.

As I mentioned yesterday, we here in Western Washington do not cope well with snow. We don't get it often, and we don't like it. We have oodles of hills, and very few people here know how to drive in it. Cities have few resources to cope with snowy and icy roads because we don't normally have that issue.

Well, we have snow now. I've got about a foot of it, and apparently, another foot is on its way. I'm all snuggled into the house with the dogs, however, so other than venting a generalized snow rage, I'm actually not having any issues...well, unless you count having to go out every couple of hours to brush off the hummingbird feeder an issue. And I do.

Here's a picture of a brave little hummer getting a hit of energy at the (somewhat snow-covered) feeder. Time to brush it off again...

What's going on at Rancho Doghair today?



Oh, nothing, just feeding the birds outside my window.

*gark*

[For those of you who don't sense the irony in my voice, it's because we here in Western Washington do not "do" snow. And we have a lot of it, with more on the way. Eeep.]