Mood: Monday

This painting is in the public domain.

The End of Dinner
oil on canvas, 1913
Jules Alexandre Grün, France

This painting appealed to me, because I never went to the beginning of a party that looked this alluring, and this is the end of one. We can all magically imagine ourselves into better places, better times, better company. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whether this is one of the good years or one of the hard ones, I hope you know you’re an essential and loved part of someone’s world, even when it doesn’t seem that way. Be gentle to yourself.

Our Christmas dinner and opening of gifts happens tonight. It’s also Tom’s birthday. Here are a couple of shots of the tables, ready for the festivities.

Button Sunday

If you have any or even all of the following traits, the BatPack wishes you the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of your dreams!

  • A love of naps
  • Big ears
  • Sweet eyes
  • Eagerness for a meal or a snack
  • A tendency to worry out loud at the sound of a doorbell, a delivery, or a car’s beep
  • A love/hate relationship with a crate
  • Toes that smell like Fritos
  • A committed relationship with a tennis ball
  • A talent for burrowing under blankets, sheets, and pillows
  • A wagging tail
  • An aversion to the sound of a smoke detector
  • The ability to stretch to cover an entire chair, couch, or bed many times your size
  • The keen sense to hear any food container (dish, bag, wrapper, lid) opening several rooms away while simultaneously not hearing “no,” “this isn’t for you,” “drop it,” and “shutupshutupshutupshutup”
  • A belief that next time, you’ll get that squirrel
  • Certainty that an ear rub is a peak experience
  • Equal certainty that a bath is not a peak experience

Any of these makes them feel they are one with you.

Fast like a snail


R.E.M: Accelerate; New Adventures In Hi-Fi; UP; Reveal; Around The Sun

You’d think with all this music played today I’d have gotten a lot of writing done. You’d think wrong. The first few chapters of a novel, at least a novel in a series, are apparently the most challenging for me.

That last CD, the Best Of, won’t play. The back is in really bad shape. Not sure what the story on that is, but it’s outta here.

Incremental progress…

…is still progress. When it comes to writing, I’ll take it. I have a first chapter draft finally, after several false starts. This has been my accompaniment.


Lou Reed, New York and Walk On The Wild Side, The Best of Lou Reed.


And this two-song “CD Single” of The Rembrandts. The back side might remind you who they are if you were alive in the Nineties and have forgotten.


Yup, the theme song from the TV show “Friends,” or “I’ll Be There For You.” I think I got this to use on a video we made for the place I worked from ’92 to ’96. Memories…

Then I moved on to these.

R.E.M.: Murmur; Out Of Time; Automatic For The People; and Monster.

There’ll be more R.E.M. to come before I continue in the “R” section of my CD binders. None of this music has been really connected to what I’m writing (except that this novel does begin with a sort of who’s who among a group of friends, I guess).

Different time, completely different kind of music. That’s fine. I’m a little partial to “Nightswimming” from Automatic For The People because if I recall correctly, Timothy referenced it in Three Fortunes in One Cookie. THERE’S a blast from the past.

Tiny Tuesday!

Mark, if you come by here, happiest of birthdays to you today. 🎂

Today’s a good day in our family memories.

Our nephew Aaron was born on this date in 1993. It seems impossible he’s been gone eleven years. We can never have enough time with people we love, especially as deeply as he’s loved. I hope everyone who knew him has a wealth of good, funny, happy, sweet, powerful memories to celebrate his time here with us. I think of his parents, brother, sister, and all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends who miss him. Today, may they remember the connections to him that bring joy.


Aaron, Penny, Pixie, and Timothy on March 12, 2012.


Since it’s Tiny Tuesday, here’s a photo from last year, though the snowman Aaron and Alex gave me one Christmas is displayed this year, too.

I’ve said it on here before: Aunt Becky is the best job title I ever had.

Mood: Monday

The photo previously posted here is by Romain de Tirtoff, under the pseudonym Erté, Winter, in pen and ink from 1978.

When I searched the Internet for art with “winter” in its title, this image showed up and made me laugh, something I’d have thought impossible twenty-eight years ago. I’ve occasionally alluded to this story here. My friends know it and have heard me speak of it many times, and the story is long, so I’ll put it behind a cut in case anyone would rather dodge it.

Continue reading “Mood: Monday”

Button Sunday

This is why it takes me so long. Some writers power through to get it all down and then go back and do their edits. Occasionally I want to try it that way, but it never works for me.

Maybe I’m too trained as an editor and proofreader. I edit, read, re-edit, and re-read constantly as I go. Maybe it’s also my experience as a teacher trained to correct errors and suggest how to polish writing.

I learned the hard way this is why beta readers don’t work for me. By the time I send pages, I’ve already started altering them.

ETA: Most recent writing playlist.


Bonnie Raitt, Bonnie Raitt


Red Hot Chili Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Magik; One Hot Minute

Los Angeles is the major city featured in the Neverending Saga. It’s the home of my soul even if it’s never been a physical home to me. Tom and I have explored there. Jim has been my tour guide there. From Blood Sugar Sex Magik, “City of Angels.” I’ve been able to use so much of L.A. in the Neverending Saga.

King of the Acorns

We’ve had an abundance of acorns this autumn, and no matter how many times we’ve swept or raked them and disposed of them, they’ve been replenished. Folklore has it that excessive acorns mean a hard winter* (an indicator that animals will be well fed during unusually long or intense cold seasons). Folklore is rarely dependable in today’s climate studies.

Still, I dubbed Rocky “King of the Acorns” today at his annual wreathing.

*I used this factoid in one of the novels in the Neverending Saga after a conversation with Lynne.

ETA: Later, after Tom and Debby returned from running errands, Tom took me outside to see what Timothy had done earlier in the day. He’s been working on cleaning and pruning the front yard, and he wanted to try some plants/herbs in Rocky’s flower bed, where they can get more light. Thanks, Tim!

And Tom has put the Christmas wreaths in the windows, including two in the windows of Lynne’s room.

And four in the living room windows. They now have little plaid reindeer on them.