Beating the beef
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Life in Texas
You have no idea how angry I am at the cows. I literally had to kick one of them in the ass this weekend - twice. Actual ass kickage. Why?

See, there's this gap in the fence. Remember, the one that killed the gothic cow a while back? Well we figured that the short hotwire gate we had across it was working well enough to keep the cattle in and didn't worry much about it. Stupid, I know. And with the weather (or complete lack of it other than wind) lately we've had to keep the 9 critters in the back yard since there's really nothing for them to eat out in the big field anyway, and the wind just messes up the hotwire so they keep getting out and causing trouble.

This isn't precisely why I'm mad at them. It's a simple fact of life out here that the beef occasionally escapes and I have to go chase it back in. In fact, they'd managed to knock the gate down a couple times and go wandering around in the pasture without getting out and into any real trouble. After a week of this we knew we'd have to plug that hole in the gate for real. As a quick fix I grabbed a couple poles and chunks of wood and wired them across it until the hubby could get a real piece of fence.

Those fuckers did not hesitate one bit and pushed right through my makeshift fence to get out. And then, to make sure I was completely pissed at them, most of them got out, across the street, and tried wandering off. We had to chase them, which turned out to be futile, and finally the hubby just got in the pickup and butted their belligerent asses back home.

So they've been penned up since Sunday. We've got more hay for them now, so there is a chance they'll be let out into the back yard again tomorrow. (Mind you, it's not like they were starving to death and needed to escape to get food. The feed may have been low, but not entirely gone.) But I swear if one of them so much as thinks about escaping I will make sure they regret it.

Blessed Imbolc
Mood:  cool
Topic: Nothing in particular
Not sure if I'm going to be doing anything special for the Sabbat. It's just too damn cold to go stand outside on the bomb shelter and get all shamanic. Yes, I'd make a lousy ascetic seeker. I suppose I could just light a candle or something. Maybe I'll stick a few leftover sparklers in the ground and light 'em up.

I'll scratch your eyes out
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Nothing in particular
Wow, spontaneous bitch fight action broke out tonight in the #bearcave. I keep hearing about all manner of drama that happens, and now I finally get to witness it.

Nothing really to report - just imagine a chat room with under a dozen gay men in it getting bitchy - specifically about 4 of them. Yeah, basically like that.

But hate is so funny to watch.

Too easy
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Various webshit

CAT - your daemon may be a cat if you are
independent and comfort loving. You follow your
heart and do what you want to do - no matter
what others think. You have a strong sense of
your own worth, and an inner dignity. You may
be loving and generous in one moment, and then
lash out at someone in the next. You have as
many moods as there are colours in a rainbow,
and you wear them all brilliantly. You always
know what you want right now - although in five
minutes you may change your mind and set your
sights elsewhere. You like to do things with
style and flair. When someone else orders you to do something, do
you feel an unholy urge to do exactly the
opposite? That just might be your inner daemon
talking.

What Is Your Daemon?
brought to you by Quizilla

Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow
Mood:  down
Topic: It's all about me
My back is acting up again. I don't know if it's something pinched or something pulled or what - hell I don't even know what I did to get it acting up again. So now I have to pile the pillows up on either side of me so I can sleep comfortably and I get to hobble around when I need something from the other end of the house.

Although I shouldn't complain too much - at least it's not at that uncomfortable no matter what I do stage. Here's to hoping it'll just go away. In any case, I know my online time will get a bit erratic. (Okay, a bit more erratic.)

My instincts prove true
Mood:  bright
Topic: Brain candy
And don't you dare act surprised. If you haven't read Red Dragon or seen either of the movie adaptations then this mild ranty bit contains spoilers.

Clicky...

The Wendy Pepper effect
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Brain candy
Holy fuck! Will we never be rid of that mouthy, preening asshole Santino Rice? I am so sick of him!

I know I've been totally lagging on my Project Runway dish. I figure if you didn't want to watch it last season after I got all crazy about it then you probably didn't want to hear me this time around. Oh but I so have to vent about Santino. Sick of him. Just like Wendy "Hagletta" Pepper, this fucker refuses to go down in flames.

Hey - Santino: Shut the fuck up already. I will cheer the day Heidi gives you the auf wiedersehen. Get off my TV!

You know you want it...

Group hug strikes again
Mood:  silly
Topic: Various webshit
I nearly pissed myself laughing at this confession. I only peep out the confessional about every other month, and sometimes a real gem surfaces. I love the pure weirdness, like this one. Of course you gotta filter through a lot of pretty predictable angst and sex to get to the giggly ones. Some are just plain fucked up, some are odd observations and some you just have to roll your eyes at.

It's a good waste of an hour or 2.

The reading list
Mood:  party time!
Topic: Brain candy
Finally finished reading The Battle of Corrin - been waiting for that book to come out in paperback for some time now and happened to spot it at the United a while back. But since I was in the middle of Weaveworld at the time it took a while to crack it open.

Not bad. Makes a good finish to the whole pre-Dune saga. A couple of annoying little details in it (why would a cargo ship for thinking machines have windows in it for humans to look out?) but nothing bad enough to take me out of the story. Mainly for me it was just plain zippy to see how the various important organizations and concepts of the Dune world got their start. Maybe one day I'll get to do a Dune game.

So I took a couple days off from reading because I wasn't sure what I wanted to read next. My last shopping binge more than doubled my reading list. I finally decided to grab Gibson's Pattern Recognition and have had the most difficult time in putting it down. Really, I almost didn't make it online tonight because that book has me thoroughly hooked. I'm already halfway through it in less than 24 hrs - I'm usually a slow and lazy reader. Gibson makes me so jealous sometimes, and this book has it in spades - I've giggled several times at how he phrases and describes certain things. Fantastic read, you should pick it up.

And, to finish this little post up: for the past few days I've been looking for something to buy with my $25 Overstock.com gifty card, courtesy of MyPoints. At first it was just browsing CDs, then I got the big idea that maybe they would have the coffee grinder that I want. Big fat no on the grinder. So I decided to start putting various random wants into the search bar and whaddaya know, up pops Barker's The Great and Secret Show and Everville, two books I have been trying to find for the past couple years. They should be on their way very soon, and the happy dance will commence.

Delayed guestage, delayed in blogging
Mood:  cool
Topic: Life in Texas
Had a couple of friends from the #bearcave stop on over for a quickie visit, on their way to their new home in Arizona. Too brief a visit to give them the whirlwind tour of the greater Muleplex, but at least they got to eat some of the most fantastic TexMex food at the Leal's.

This was about a week ago, actually. I've just been in total blog lag again. StrongAxe and SingerBear were supposed to show up either the Thu or Fri before, but their schedule got all screwy and they ended up arriving on Tue. This meant that the hubby had to crash relatively early (which he didn't) instead of staying up all night. Although since they were just having a quick crash-over there wasn't any real plan to do an all nighter anyway.

Haven't heard a peep out of 'em since then. So hey - if either one of you is reading this blog, send a heads up my way so I know you guys made it okay.