Scattered

Anybody else using LiveMocha? Especially to learn French? I just joined (as TechnoMom, of course) and would like to have “friends” there. I started with the beginner level, lesson one, and actually learned a few new vocabulary words. (My wee bit of foreign language instruction in high school sucked, to put it mildly.) You’re supposed to ask your “friends” for feedback on your lessons, but I don’t have any and don’t really want to ask total strangers about how badly I did.

Sam and Katie have been at Dragon*Con for the past few days. We had a house guest, David, but I didn’t really “meet” him because of the late con hours and having a really bad pain flare. Sorry, David! He went home this afternoon. I’m glad Sam has the day off tomorrow to recover. I’m glad Hope got to come to D*C but pouting because I won’t get to see her while she’s in town. I know that she has brightened Sam’s weekend.

I finished reading The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross last night, and started Phaedra Weldon’s Wraith. I liked Morgue, but it wasn’t quite as strong as The Atrocity Archives. The short story at the end of the book, “Pimpf,” didn’t do too much for me, but I’m not a video gamer so that probably has a lot to do with it.

I’m really liking Wraith. A lot. The fact that it’s set in Atlanta is nice, because I can follow along the geography as the characters move around. (Usually, such things go right past me, even if there’s a map.) Thanks to Good Reads, I know that there’s a novella, “Out of the Dark,” on Weldon’s site that takes place between this book and Spectre.

I’ve also been browsing through the archives at Two Lumps, thanks to a link from . I had a pair of Russian Blues who were entirely too much like Ebenezer and Snooch! If you’re a veteran of cat cohabitation, be careful when reading. I recommend not having a drink in hand (or in mouth) and being careful to empty your bladder before you start reading.

Kioshi is busy telling me that he still doesn’t want to cuddle with anybody but Katie, but he wants her home NOW! RIGHT NOW! And that we really have to stop letting the kitten out of the house without his personal supervision.