Home 2018 July

Month: July 2018

Back to School AAAHH

I work at a school. Last Thursday, my teachers came back. Next Thursday, my kids come back. My life gets pretty hectic this time of year. I love my teachers, my job, and my kids, but good lork. A conversation from today, in script form: Staff: Our smart board (basically a huge touch screen attached to a computer) doesn’t work. Me, bounding out of my chair to go have a look: Still? I reported it yesterday, and IT said they fixed it this morning. Staff: Oh, no, I hadn’t had the chance to check it today. (A short period of time passes) Staff: Our smart board still doesn’t work. Me: Did it work at all before it started back doing the thing? Staff: Oh, it’s not doing the same thing. Now it just comes up, says “no signal” and goes black. Me: That’s the monitor. The computer is off. Staff: What computer? Me: ~goes into classroom, turns computer on the back of the monitor on~ Time: ~passes~ SAME STAFF, at my desk again: Our keyboard and mouse don’t work for the smart board. Me: Did you check the batteries? Staff: First thing. Me: ~goes into classroom, checks motion of mouse, checks laser is not obstructed, notices mouse is not turned on, turns it on. Sees on/off switch on keyboard is also set to OFF, turns on. Turns glare on staff member.~ Staff: I…Diet Coke, right? Or dark chocolate? Me: Both. Don’t you think? Staff: …yeah. I do. The staff member…

Continue reading

The Hailey Chronicles

I first met Hailey when my husband, who was at the time my boyfriend, brought me home to his apartment. Sitting there was a black cat with green-yellow eyes. She was just two years old. And i fell in love with her on the spot (I also fell in love with her daddy, but that took slightly longer). She used to love play-biting me. And screwing with my husband’s Christmas tree. This little thing made a move to our apartment ten years ago and followed me out of it when I was signing for a UPS shipment. I’d walked in, shut and locked the door, and ate dinner. About a half hour later, I hear her crying and realize, oh crap! She’s outside. I spent at least fifteen minutes apologizing for leaving her out there, alone and scared. Once she darted out of the apartment and up the stairs. I thank God for the outer door being closed. She might have left us, never to return again. She made the move to where we live now, an actual house to roam in. She has her favorite places: on top of the recliner (she has amazing balance), on the bed, on the couch in the evenings, my office sometimes. On the couch in the basement in the mornings with hubby. Hailey’s not a cuddler or lap cat, and holding her usually results in panicked yowls and wiggling until she’s set free. However, when I was recovering from ankle surgery, she actually…

Continue reading

Planning for Never

Have you ever spent a ton of time of a project you suspect you’ll never do? If you’re anything like me, you love the idea. You do research. You plan things out. Everything would be ready to go…if you would just start it up. Sometimes I even go so far to buy supplies that never get used. (Though I try not to get to that point, because that’s a waste of money that could be used for coffee and books.) There’s something so lovely about an idea, isn’t there? Because it isn’t real, because it doesn’t exist, the possibilities are endless. Of course, there are sometimes reasons not to go through with something–if it’s too expensive, if you don’t have the skills to pull it off, if you can’t fit anything else in your schedule, if you can’t or won’t actually do anything with it when it’s done… The nice thing about ideas is that there’s lots of them. Another one will come along. Or maybe things will change, and that idea will become a reality. I had that happen recently–I planned a short story years ago, but never wrote it. Except now I have, and I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, as well. And it doesn’t hurt anything to plan. It’s fun. It’s practice. And maybe something will actually come out of it. Currently I’m poking fantasy clothing. We spend our summers at festivals–medieval festivals, renaissance festivals, Scottish festivals–you name it, and we’re game. And I don’t…

Continue reading

The Gardening Saga Resumes

If you were around these parts last year, you might remember that my spouse and I kinda gave up on our vegetable garden for a year, covering it over with landscape fabric and mulch to try to suppress the perennial weeds (bindweeds) that had overtaken it. This year we’re trying again. But we’re trying to be smarter about it. Half of the vegetable bed is just plain covered over again. The other half has been divided into a grid system invented by my spouse, with strips of fabric surrounding 1′ X 1′ squares of open soil. (Think plaid.) The fabric parts have been mulched again, and the rest of the mulch will cover the open soil. That way, there will be a strong weed barrier over much of the garden, a weaker barrier over the rest. and we should be able to keep up a little better. At least that was the plan. But due to our work schedules, we can’t do much (or any) gardening during the week, and our last three weekends have looked like this: out of town; rainy; hot as Hades. So we haven’t finished the mulching, and the bindweed has popped up again in the squares. At least the fabric is holding them back for now. Despite our neglect, most of what we’ve planted is thriving. (Thank goodness for my in-laws, who water diligently while we’re at work!) The tomatoes in particular are loving the heat. We still have some squares to fill; I’m thinking…

Continue reading

Fireborn Teaser

Hey, this is Erin, and what follows is a teaser from Chapter 1 of Fireborn, our August release. Enjoy!   “I can’t stop thinking about those deaths.” Rick and I were in the car on our way to the veterinarian—an animal doctor—which was what normal cat owners did. Rick figured that Love looked pretty normal, with the exception of her razor-sharp claws and glowing eyes. She managed to dim them for now, and I hoped they’d stay dimmed. Or else we’d have lots of questions to answer. I had been wondering how her general health was. Whether living outside the Underworld had caused any permanent effects. It didn’t seem that way, but what did I know? I was still impressed with indoor plumbing and telephones. Rick glanced at me. “Are you are still being called?” He made a turn to the right. I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just…I want to fix it.” “You can’t fix death, as extraordinary as you are.” He flashed me a grin. “I don’t mean it that way,” I said, watching the scenery pass by. “I meant…change it…no, that’s not it.” I sighed. “This is tough to explain. I want to stop the suicides from happening.” Rick stopped at a red light. “So you do want to help?” “I feel like I should, you know? But this life means that I get to be normal again, and I don’t want to be involved with death anymore. I can’t decide.” My chest constricted. What I didn’t…

Continue reading