I have other potential good news, but won’t jinx it by talking about it too early. Hopefully soon.

It is now raining. Pouring. Not usual for us, but it’s great for us. We need the moisture a lot.

I haven’t been eating very well lately. Not enough veggies. Got to try to change that. Not enough tea either. Gotta mend that. Course I did manage not to eat buttered popcorn and drink diet coke at the theater. That’s got to be a plus, right?

Because I haven’t actually left town in seven weeks, and I haven’t seen a good friend in I don’t know how long, I went to Butte today and ran some errands and had lunch with said friend.

Because the dogs are dropping hair like a billion dandelions, I vacuumed the house after the kids went to bed. Well, the lower half. Tomorrow will be the upper half.

Because I forgot to run the dishes and the sink is overflowing, I not only ran the dishwasher, but did a slew of handwashing.

Because it rained for the last three days, I haven’t planted the flowers I bought yet. But things are getting green.

Because I went to Butte today, I saw 5 golden eagles. Huge freaking birds and so lovely.

Because I went to Butte with my son, he talked nonstop for about 2 hours before he got tired. I mean nonstop. NON. STOP.

Because I went into Walmart for some protein powder (which I did not find–why do they put so much crap in it? going to the Health Food Store tomorrow. It wasn’t open today) my son forced me to watch a knife demonstration in order to get a free paring knife.

Because I watched said knife demonstration, I bought knives. I’m a sucker.

What did you do this weekend?

Working on something that isn’t coming together very well. It’s very shiny though. So I keep stirring it to see what will turn up. Trouble is, I have to break outside my own expectations for a particular place. Normal behavior in this place doesn’t apply, nor do typical motivations, or typical laws. It’s upside down in a lot of ways, for a good reason, but I keep falling into traditional mental patterns and I have to get out of that. If only it were that easy.

All the purple has vanished from my hair and I need to put it in again. I’ll try to work on it this weekend.

Doing some research for my current WIP. Not sure if I’m getting anywhere. I’d like to go visit the location.

Poked at the manuscript some more. But essentially I did a fair amount of website work, and it really doesn’t look like I did that much. How aggravating.

The lilacs have all popped, as have all the trees in town. Smells so amazing outside.

Just saw the news on Grandbury, TX. Oh, hell. What a terrible disaster. Never again do I want to live in tornado country. Feel like I got out of the midwest by the skin of my teeth when I see stories like this.

At the mention of the Brody name, Taryn went rigid. “That’s enough,” she said, pushing abruptly to her feet and collecting up her dishes. “I don’t need to hear any more.”

“What?” was Granger’s bewildered reply.

“I don’t need to hear any more,” she said, then turned around, folding her arms over her wrinkled blouse. “I don’t want to hear any more. Finish your pie and your coffee and get on with you.”

“But—  I have to tell you. You’re on the list.”

“List?”

“You know. The List.  The Book List.”

He cast a look around the kitchen as if searching for the incriminating book. It lay on the end of the kitchen island, beside a vase of white camelias. The edges of the flowers were turning brown and starting to curl. It seemed like an omen.

Granger’s gaze skimmed right over the book without seeing it. Hard to believe, given that it was bound in wood with traceries of silver curling across it like whisps of mist. Dotting the cover and set into bezels of silver were cabochons of amethyst, tiger eye, agate, moonstone, and a dozen other stones Taryn had yet to identify.

She’d left the damned thing— Taryn let out a quiet sigh. She couldn’t remember where or even when she’d even picked it up, much less actually put it somewhere. It didn’t matter. The book followed her. Silently demanding. Open it. Write in its blank pages.

When gators tanned their own hides and turned themselves into boots, Taryn thought sourly and focused back on her guest. Invader. Granger was eyeing her with frowning sterness, like a father about to give his daughter a lecture. Or so she supposed. Her father had scarecely ever noticed her, much less lectured.

A spider slid down a thread directly above the sheriff’s head. A black widow, by the looks of her. She hung there, waiting silent vigil. If he were to threaten Taryn, the spider would act. She wouldn’t be the only one. A swarm of delicate spider feet tickled up Taryn’s legs and over her lap, climbing up onto the underside of the table. A silent, deadly army. Whether he knew it or not, Granger was in serious danger.

On June 14th, I’ll be at Jayfest at Powell’s Beaverton in honor of and support for Jay Lake, a fabulous SF writer who’s struggling with cancer. There will be a group signing and a book fair. Other authors include David Levine, Phyllis Irene Radford, Devon Monk, Barb and J. C. Hendee, Shannon Page, Mark Ferrari, J. A. Pitts, M. K. Hobson, and Tina Connolly.

On August 14th at 7:00, I’ll be taking part in the SFWA reading series. Laura Ann Gilman is hosting the program, Phyllis Irene Bradford will also be reading. To register, go here.

I’m planning on Orycon, and may be at Spocon. More on those later.

What I was thinking about as I was walking was how our sense of foods has changed over the years. Remember when a calorie was a calorie and it was just reduction of calories and exercise? Then we figured out that kinds of calories mattered. Fat wasn’t that good. And then there were all the cholesterol issues caused by the wrong kinds of fat. Somewhere along the lines the question of carbs came up–bad carbs v good carbs v any carbs at all. Then there was “real” foods v manufactured foods, like high fructose corn syrup. Oh, I also forgot the meat v. no meat question. Oh, and all the exercise questions: aerobic v. anaerobic; walking v something more vigorous; how long to do it and how often?

This raised the question for me–every time some of this comes up, it’s right. The science is right for a lot of it, or so we are told. And then the science changes and either we learned something new, or we were wrong before. I wonder how we know if we’re right now? Not that there’s any agreement. On the other hand, losing weight isn’t a once-size fits all answer. Not only are all our bodies different, but our access to foods is different, not to mention what we like and don’t like, what we’re inclined to do for exercise and not, and so on and so forth. In the end, we all have to find something that works for us and then make it work.

I’ve lost 35 lbs (I first wrote lobs, and thought, yeah, accurate that) over the last couple of years. I still have a long way to go. But my goals are always one pound at a time. I’m not entirely sure why it’s coming off to be honest. I’m not doing anything spectacularly different. I gave up aspartame September 1, 2012. That’s meant a pretty significant change to my sweet tooth. I don’t crave stuff as much. I’ve been trying not to answer my stress and tiredness with food. I’ve been trying not to eat when I’m not hungry. So just because it’s a traditional mealtime, i don’t necessarily eat, or rather, I don’t eat a meal. I’ll have a piece of fruit or a yogurt or just enough to keep my blood sugar steady (I’m prediabetic). I’m reducing carbs, but that’s not really all that intentional. I used to crave them more when I drank aspartame. Now I don’t. I’m working on flavors more. I like food and so I am trying to expand my food palette (had some great Morroccan soup and green Vietnamese curried steak for Mother’s Day). I also love salads, so I spend the time to make something tasty. I’ve also been doing a lot of walking. Especially as the weather has improved. And of course, the less I weigh, the easier walking is. Oh, and another thing I’ve done is shift to a lot more real food. Real butter, real sugar, and so forth. I try to keep high fructose corn syrup out of the house and do my best to cook from scratch as often as I can (though don’t get me wrong–hotdogs happen in this house).

What’s funny is that sometimes my mom will call attention to what I’m eating for being fattening or whatever, and I just have to laugh. Right now things are working. Yeah, maybe I could speed up the process, but since this is working, I’m afraid to change, especially since this is a way of life for me and to incorporate bigger changes might mean that I lose the weight and then gain it back. It seems to me my body wants to lose this weight and is helping me. I’ve lost fifteen pounds so far this year, since the end of June 2012. We’ll see if I lose any more before the year’s up. I’m just really happy to not be gaining it back.

My dog has a sore in his armpit (front leg). Every time it start to heal over, something happens and he starts licking and it becomes unhealed and open. I bought gauze and vetwrap today, and I can’t get it to stay on. I wrapped it multiple times. I can’t get it tight enough. Maybe if I shaved all the hair off, it could work, but don’t know that I want to do that (even if had clippers). I’m must not sure how to keep it covered so that I can keep neosporin on the wound. Suggestions? I’m going to keep him out of his harness and walk him off leash. Otherwise I think it adds to his discomfort. This has been going on awhile. The vet looked at it and shaved away the close-by hair. I thought it was healed, but apparently not.

I need cotton sheets. I’ve been using flannel for years, even through the summer, but I need cooler sheets. Time to go looking. I know very little about percale or sateen or thread-counts or whatever. I don’t suppose you do? I know, 14 years in Montana and it’s time to have summertime sheets. What am I thinking?

Got my hair cut today. Much of the purple got cut off, so I”m going to have to do some dyeing. Miscon is a week and a half away. Must look my purpley best, right?

Isn’t it lovely? It shifts color when the light changes. I love it. Today I took it in to see about a frame, which was seriously expensive. But it will be lovely. Oh, it’s of the Missouri Breaks.

I also bought a bunch of flowers today and will plant them tomorrow. Pretties to make the yard look nice for people who are looking. Also it looks like the lilacs will bloom shortly and my lilies of the valley are starting to come up. Pleased about that.

I’m having a good time with my parents. It’s really nice to have them here get a chance to spend time.

I also wrote a few words and keep poking at the WIP with a stick. Also shed another pound. Yay.