20 Sep

Pumpkin Day in Perm

TikvaDayAre you familiar with Perm? No? I’m not surprised. I’ve only heard of it because I’ve read Tom Holt’s comic fantasy novel Who’s Afraid of Beowulf?, in which one of the characters gets a lot of ribbing for having gone to Perm. It’s on the western side of Urals, near Ekaterinburg. Maybe not exactly Siberia in my American mind, but pretty darn close. A place I don’t spend much time thinking about, and a place I didn’t expect to have a pumpkin festival.

But they do!

ТыкваDay [Tykva = pumpkin] 2013 was September 12-15, in Gorky Park. (Not the Gorky Park in Moscow, the Gorky Park in Perm.) Read More

01 Nov

The Kitten of the Baskervilles

Evil, evil kitty!

It’s November again and I am Nanowrimoing my little heart out, so I’ll be reposting a few things from way back when, and concentrating on the new novel climbing out of my head.

We’ll start off with this excitement from 2007.

A Halloween Tale (Tail?)

Last week, on Halloween night, between parties, I found a glowstick bracelet and took it with me. Upon getting home, I gave it to the kitten, as I often do with smallish objects that can be batted about on the carpet. It was late, beer had been drunk, exeunt humans unto bed.

6:30:00 am. Hearing a somewhat odd noise, I stir from sleep. There are flecks of glowing foam flying through the air and a distressed kitten ricocheting about the bedroom.

6:30:10 am. I leap from bed and begin trying to catch the cat while cursing and calling upon various deities to have mercy on the poor beast. Boyfriend wakes up, is confused and annoyed at the early wake up call. Assumes I am berating the cat for playing with some inappropriate item.

6:30:45 am. I hold the cat down in the sink and rinse out her mouth, since she is foaming at the mouth, and the spittle is glowing.

6:31 am. Boyfriend is awake and discombobulated. I am wet and concerned. Kitten is wet and unhappy.

6:33 am. Offending glow bracelet located in the hallway, with small puncture wound, leaking glowing chemicals onto carpet.

6:35 am. Boyfriend checks the interweb and determines that a) the chemicals are only mildly toxic, b) they taste really nasty (hence the leaping and foaming), and c) many cats before have had similar experiences.

6:37 am. Feed kitten some crunchies to help get the taste out of her mouth.

6:38 am. Everyone calms down and goes back to bed.

Apparently cats chewing on glowsticks and then being very sorry is not uncommon. You can get more info here.

25 Oct

Halloween Death Heads

I’ve been in Seattle for three weeks – I got married and then left my husband in the Lower 48 for safekeeping. Now I’m back to Sitka for my last month as Tongass Salmon Forest Resident and Southeast Alaska is about the same as I left it – gray and damp, and ten degrees cooler than Western Washington.

It’s almost Halloween, and I saved these photos out of my earlier posts on spawning salmon for their, umm, seasonal appeal.

We’re a little short on pumpkin patches in Southeast Alaska, but the tail end of the salmon season provides plenty of ghoulish remains to get you in the Halloween mood.

Salmon Skellington
Empty eye sockets – the sea gulls make sure of that.
Yep, the skin is just rotting of the flesh here.

Those are some gnarly teeth!

I’m also looking forward to the Stardust Ball, which is how Sitka (at least a certain subset of the adults) celebrates Halloween. It includes a lip-synch and costume contest, and if this video from last year is anything to go on, will be a hoot.

Here’s hoping my planned costume (Carmen Sandiego) will be up to Stardust standards!