Stare Down!

"Mom, what is this freak doing in my room!" They both said, equally baffled...

I wish I could explain the irony to them, that to each of them, the other is so vastly different that they can't understand this strange creature looking back at them.

(Magic is also waiting for her food to warm up and telling Kitana to leave her mouse alone, something like this happens pretty much every time I feed her - which means her tank is easier for Kitana to see into)

Tantalus Depths : my review

     Sooo I have a confession...

     I've had an advance copy of this book for a while now. I kept meaning and meaning to get around to it, and kept having other things demand my attention. Then I FINALLY (sorry, Evan) sat down with it last week, and once that finally happened I could not put it back down - tragically exempting work, sleep and food.

     Fast forward a couple of days. I hit the apex of the story. At almost 1am with about 5 chapters left to go, I grabbed a glass of wine, my pajamas and the book, and settled in to finish the adventure before I went to bed, white knuckling nearly as much as the heroine of the story.

     What is this story about? A mining crew are sent out to establish a colony on a planet, Tantalus 13, which will stake a claim on that area of the planet for their employers, Exotech Industries. An AI unit known as a SCARAB (Self-Constructing Autonomous Resource Acquisition Base) was sent ahead 2 years before to serve as a base for the crew and assist them in their mission. Once the crew reaches the planet however, Mary Ketch, the mission's pilot, starts noticing oddities about the planet and SCARAB. Soon the rest of the crew start picking up on oddities within the planet - and determine that they have to explore the new findings - and find out what is hidden within Tantalus 13. But in doing so they will find themselves in very deep over their heads, and SCARAB seems to be acting strange... which with an AI, is never a good sign. When patterns start to show up in the crews' data files and SCARAB's behavior, some disconcerting questions start to come up - but who can Mary voice them to, when SCARAB hears every word she speaks?

SCARAB drone

       Cleverly and vividly written, with elements from classic sci-fi, solid scientific footing, a touch of horror/thriller, and a strong female protagonist who would make Joss Whedon proud, Tantalus Depths will draw you in until you're as deep into the story as the characters exploring the unnatural world.

     Pre-orders and more information are available at https://www.inkshares.com/books/tantalus-depths, and you can find Tantalus Depths on facebook as well here.

Growing lettuce from roots

Take a whole head of lettuce with some roots still attached, and cut off the leaves to use for salad or sandwiches.

There should be 1-2 inches of green left above the roots

Find a nice spot of earth with plenty of sunlight, or put a pot of soil in the same area. Dig a hole deep enough to place the roots into comfortably.

Place the plant in the hole, and cover with the loose dirt from the hole. Leave some of the green sticking out of the hole.

Soak the ground around the roots, and I mean soak it, as the water helps the roots adjust and avoid shock. After the first couple of days just make sure the ground stays moist enough for the plant to grow well.

If the roots take well, after a couple of weeks your lettuce will have some lovely leaves sprouting off of its base. After a few weeks the plant will be ready for you to harvest a few leaves at a time to let the plant continue producing, or to harvest the whole head at once.

Garden day

I got to hang out with a friend and get some gardening done, both with her and at my place.


(The mom I was helping is the same person who makes these awesome soaps at Second Chance Beads)

We got some later plants into her beds (beans and peppers) and got some tomato plants moved to their new homes, then got to sit on the porch eating salads that were basically grown in the garden.

After that, she sent me home with some veggies and herbs...

Miles loved the catnip, which I've since moved outside to avoid having both of the cats get insanely stoned and wreck the apartment.

 

I separated the lettuce leaves from their bases, which I've replanted (I'll do a post later on replanting lettuce and other veggies from cuttings)

Soaking the leaves to get all the dirt off!

In single-serving mason jars to use for lunches - just add meat, dressing, etc

Some lettuce cuttings, planted near a tomato plant

I also got a few Roma tomato plants from her, since too many were growing for her to use up even with 8 mouths in the house.

Roma

There are also some other plants that I got in over the past week, including some flowers, and one very adorable little bug-eating guardian 

Some shade-loving annuals; this bed is under a tree

See the toad?

The little guard is sitting behind the flower here

Some oregano and sage in the window

Basil plant

Squash

Chives grown from cuttings, and a small lettuce started last week

 Today was great timing to plant, since there we got some rain this afternoon once we were done getting the plants in. Now I get to sit back and chill for a bit before heading out for a crazy party, and by crazy party I mean board games with some of the coolest nerds I know. Miles would rather just hang out here and watch Lord of the Rings though...

Exercise "assistants"

I got some "help" this week while doing some indoor exercises, so here are a few of the shenanigans...

We're just watching, gotta make sure you know what you're doing!

Wrestling match!

I didn't need the mat at all, go ahead and stay right there Kitana.

One-sided conversations

I have a friend who has helped me through a lot of hard times and decisions in my life, someone whom I tend to go to when I'm not sure what to do and need advice. I've listened to him, sometimes agreed sometimes disagreed, but I've always respected his thoughts on the matters he's willing to speak on. His opinions come through loud and clear, and he has a brilliant sense of humor. Yet no matter what I say to him, he never listens.

It's not his fault, he isn't being rude or uncaring - he died in 1969, 20 years before I was even born. His name is C.S. Lewis, and through his books and other writings I've had countless one-sided conversations with him.

It's amazing how much someone who wrote books over 40 years ago now can still affect lives today. I was one of many whose lives C.S. Lewis touched first through the stories in Narnia. In the first book I read, of children who found themselves embroiled in a war, in a land they didn't understand, yet they find themselves assigned the task of helping to bring the war to an end, he grabbed my attention. Yet to my astonishment, the children were not going to be the ones to finish the battle, it was the Lion who would come to the rescue when victory seemed impossible. My mom saw how much I adored this schoolbook, and after the school year ended she handed me a box set with all 7. I've been besotted with this magical world he created ever since, and in particular the character of Aslan, whose personality helped my child's mind (and now, even my adult mind) see different aspects of Jesus' personality.

In college I got into some of Lewis's more grown up works, starting with a book group that read The Great Divorce. I got another 7 book set from my mom of his - The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics. While I still haven't finished all 7 of these books (which I intend to do this year), the ones I have read have helped me to examine issues and questions in my own life, and the larger world,  from different angles than I had been able to on my own, or in discussions with friends. Mere Christianity and The Great Divorce in particular shaped how I view the afterlife, and living in this life to the fullest. Screwtape's letters were a mental exercise in the futility of trying to understand the perspective of pure evil, which is so amazing at being "consistently inconsistent" that my brain had to pause at various times, yet is so obvious and self-serving that you can't help but understand the viscous motives.

These are only some of his writing that has touched my own life, not even getting into the vast body of work he made that has gripped readers for decades, changing and shaping lives even after the author has left this world.

To everyone out there who's ever thought about writing but thought you had nothing worth writing, I ask you to keep this in mind - you never know who your writing may touch, nor how long after you write it someone may find it and find hope or advice in your writings. You have no idea how many one-sided conversations you will hold with people, conversations that can shed light on minds in places and times you may never reach otherwise. 

Short Caturday Blurb

This is what happens when I come home from a weekend trip:

"Nope, you can't touch this bag again. When you touch it you leave."

Sorry for the silence

I actually had to make a post with the same name a while ago, before I started using Blogger. Go figure. (Apologies ahead of time - this may get a little bit vent-y)

It's been a while since I made anything that wasn't a quick project either meant to be used right away (because I love to Macgyver everything), or just to give away quickly. Part of that was crazy busy times, especially while I was able to help out at Triple T for a while with the horses (that I miss like crazy), and part was high levels of stress from job- and roommate-related issues. I've gotten to work on and off on a few things, but mostly I'd get frustrated with them and frog them before I finished working on them.

*sigh* Such is life. I can't go back and make the time repeat itself more favorably, but I can pick up and dust myself off.

Once my roommate got herself evicted (this month) and I decided that for the time being I wasn't interested in having a new roommate, I converted the 2nd bedroom into a studio/guest room

So now I have a designated place for crafting

I needed a new dishtowel, so I went ahead and found a fun but simple pattern and made a small project that was nearly impossible to get too mad at before I finished it.

And I picked up a craft I haven't done in years for fun

Of course, I've also had some *help* remembering to have some fun once in a while too, and some help exercising.

     

I've also had to set up a schedule for working out, including running, which I've never liked before, 3x/week (Thank you Zombies, Run! I'm currently using the couch to 5k version, on week 5)

Right in my back yard, and the farthest I can be from traffic

So here's to picking up where I left off