The Virtual Wren

In re New York's recent change in law: Personally, I like it. Civil union and marriage are not the same thing. One is a legal institution and one is spiritual.

In collage, my young man of the moment and I jumped over a broom together. We didn't apply for a licence or anything but techically we were "married". It was only for a year and a day with an option for extension and when the option came up, we opted out by mutual agreement.(We actually jumped backwards over the broom...)

Were we "married"? Well, yes. That traditional ceremony is just as valid as any big church wedding. Was there a legal union? No. We hadn't decided if we wanted to go that route yet and, as it turned out, we didn't. Now, 30 years later, we're still friends. There was no big legal battle, no big division of 'stuff' (we were college kids- we didn't actually own anything!) and no reason to fight.

My ebay auctions did not yield me as much as I had hoped (I still want that nice new book press!) and I am considering going through my Bpal collection and destashing a lot of my rarer backup bottles. Storyville in particular- I don't wear it often but I wore it yesterday and while it's nice and I like it, there are things I like a lot more. I won't be selling any of the Dublin, October or Shivering Boy but there are some others that are not often seen that I could let go and let someone else have a chance at. Thoughts?

I did make enough money to get the leather and sewing supplies I need for The Flying Yorkshireman and a hardbound (and signed!) copy of Shards of Honor- I'm not sure what colour I want to bind it in. Perhaps Betan Survey tan? or would Barayarian black be more apropo? And I put in a bid for a hardbound copy of Beauty. That one I want to bind in rose leather, I already know and somehow bind Robin McKinley's letter to me (under my pen name) into it. I'm debating binding Rose Daughter as well as a matched set. And then there are all those Oz books... and green leather for me to bind them in which will be a pretty penny in and of itself!

In all events, I really do need another book press!

but I have clothes in the dryer that I have to wait on.

So I'm going to tell you a cat story.

I've probably mentioned the cat I had in high school, St Thomas. (When we got him, he was so little that we doubted he was a Thomas, hence the name.) He didn't stay small, though! He is still the most massive cat we have ever had.

We had had him for about three years when we had another cat wander up- a pretty little female. She didn't stay with us for very long so I don't remember what we named her. Before we could get her to the vet, she went into heat. Saint was fixed so we weren't worried on that count.

But OMG~ that cat was part siamese! She didn't look it but you could tell from her yowls which were unceasing for days. Nobody could get any sleep in that house and she was driving everybody half mad.

Now at the time my Dad was into all kinds of herbal preparations and he had about 30 bottles of pills of different types on a high shelf in his study. Among them, he had a bottle of testosterone.

Finally, Saint took matters into his own paws, as it were. He got up on that shelf (no idea how- it was out of cat reach), sorted through the bottles, knocked the testosterone down on the floor, removed the child proof cap (!!???!!) and had him some.

Then he went and serviced that cat so she would shut up!

I knew he could read a clock and a calendar- but I still don't know how he managed to sort out reading 'testosterone' on the bottle or how he knew that was what he needed to perform.

Broken Wings:





Beast:





Arthur Rose:





The Silver Tree:





Regular journal:

( for chatriant )

And if you didn't find this retelling side-splittingly funny, you have no humor.

We're having the first real rain of autumn now... yay!!

I found a book in the Weird Book Room at ABE books. It's called Paint It Black- A Guide to Gothic Homemaking. There is also a cookbook- Manifold Destiny: The One, The Only, Guide To Cooking On Your Car Engine. Fun stuff! (Like I didn't already have enough to read!)

A story came up at dinner-

WHen I was 10 and my brother was 8 we started to take the city bus halfway home to Mom's office. She told us to go to the corner down the hill from our school and take the first bus that went by- they all ran downtown where her office was. So that is what we did.

Unfortunately, Mom was wrong, there was one bus that did not go downtown and according to Murphy's inevitable law, that was the first one that ran past the first day we took the bus.

So, of course, the street corner we were supposed to get off on, never arrived. I kept looking for it and we kept riding until we came back to where we started from. Then I made my brother get off the bus with me and walk back up to the school and call my Mom (who was, by this time, totally panicked). She called my Dad who was half a city closer to come pick us up. My Dad, instead of coming himself, sent one of his coworkers.

Now, like all kids, my brother and I had been told and told again not to ride with strangers. So when this stranger showed up, I refused to get in the car and refused to let my brother get in either. I made him radio my Dad and then made Dad give me a description of him, tell me his name and made him show me his driver's license. (He was legit, after all) I heard him telling Dad that he'd never been so grilled by a 10 year old before.

So the 'old' woman got home that night.

Kind of odd to think, I was a year younger than Emily is now when that happened. I wish she had that much presence of mind in dealing with people and the world, I'd feel a whole lot better about her growing up.

( The Silver Tree )
Word Count: 1846

6/20/96

( Story )
Word Count: 5454

Based on Beauty by Robin Mckinley

12Dec2000

( Long story- cut to save your friends page. )

7Nov99

Word Count 8971

It started with coffee. (A lot of things in my life start with coffee.) And sewing. (A lot of other things in my life start with sewing.)

I saw a coffee bean print fabric in Hancock's that was on sale... and bought 3 or 4 yards of it. Then I collected other coffee themed fabrics and designed a quilt around it. (I also made the scraps into my kitchen curtains and that and needing a splash plate for behind my stove is how my kitchen came to be coffee-themed. And brown.)

Which I was stitching up my design into blocks, my thoughts turned, as they will at such times, to a suitable quilting pattern for this particular quilt. And I had an inspiration! A Caffeine molecule! Brilliant!

So I found a picture of a caffeine molecule. Which I then posted as one of the pictures on a not-quite dating site, seeing as I lack many decent pictures of me and many of them are decades old. My dearth of pictures yielded unexpected fruit in the form of a couple of new, and bright!, friends. One of them was toxins. In due course, he introduced me to fountaingirl, who shared, among other things, a fondness for truly good and unusual perfumes.

She sent me, after several months of suggesting, some samples of perfume oil. Wow. Let me tell you what... Wow. This has been good for my nose but hard on my pocket. However, I wouldn't go back if I could.

Today, I ordered a Bpal T-shirt and a box full of Lush from there UK online store. The shipping is hideous but they have several things that the US store did not... and the prices were cheaper so that I come out about the same.

So that's the story... it all started with coffee.