It’s NaNo Time!
It’s time for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Have you signed up or accepted your site user agreement for this year yet? If you’re a member of Forward Motion, we have a hangout already established, so stop there and check in. The site’s a little slow, you say? That’s normal for both the first few days of sign-ups as well as peak times throughout the contest. Hang loose. It will catch up.
If you’re a writer or want to be one professionally — even if it’s only “someday” — you owe it to yourself to check out Forward Motion. We always get an influx of new members around NaNo time, so you’ll have lots of new folks to feel lost with together. FM’s a huge site and can be overwhelming. Give it two weeks of wandering around time. If you do that, it will start to feel familiar, and you should find a kindred spirit or two there. In fact, give Zette a few days, and she’ll have the annual NaNoWriMo Refugee board operational again — I’ll try to remember to post a link when it comes up.
You have enough time to prepare some extra meals and get them in the freezer for the family while you’re off NaNoing. I’ll make sure Natasha’s food tower is full. Speaking of Natasha, do you have cats that lick you? Have you ever wondered why they do that? I figure there are three reasons — I taste good, I need grooming, or Natasha is expressing affection. When Plato (one of our long ago departed Siamese) did that, hubby said, “He always cleans his food before he eats it” implying he was about to bite (Plato would give a playful nip if you didn’t give him attention when he thought you were supposed to — and Natasha does the same thing). What strange things to your pets do?
You mean besides whacking me in the eye? 🙂 Chloe and Ryan both lick; Chloe is the Alpha so I figure she thinks I need a bath, and Ryan is usually trolling for people food. He begs for peanut butter toast. Both nibble when they want attention. Ryan grumbles, and he’s the snuggle kitty of the bunch. (Male–go figure. All my boys like(d) to snuggle, but only one of the girls, and she was old, asthmatic, and developing arthritis.) Chloe starts talking to me between 3 and 4 in the afternoon, depending on what kind of dry food is available. I mix brands to try to keep everyone happy, and if the kind she likes isn’t up, she yells at me until 5:00 or I come and give them dinner, whichever comes first. Tess is pretty low-key, but she meets me when I come in the back door to see if I’ve brought any grass in for her to eat. It’s the most annoying thing: I can hardly keep the grass out of the garden, but I can’t get it to stay alive in a pot for the furries.
My dad, with a degree in Animal Science, says animals lick you because of the salt on your skin. Nothing like a cerebral way of looking at it, huh? I prefer to think they love me. 🙂
Twix will attack me when I sit in my husband’s recliner–only in the evening. She sneaks up under the arm of the chair and pounces on my arm or shoulder and takes off. If I ruin it for her and catch her sneaking up on me, she tries again by going around and sneaking under the footrest and pouncing on my feet instead. I haven’t got a clue as to what started this whole ritual!
My husband has several rituals with his cats. Pericles is “Shoe Cat” and has a fetish for snuggling shoes. They also have a couple of rituals associated with my husband getting dressed in the morning that are comical to watch.
Ajax, on the other hand, responds to the term “hug attack” by becoming a streaming blur of fur leaping staright up and long from a seated position on the floor to the “baby carrying position” on my husband’s shoulder. It’s amazing to watch.
Oh, Tess loves shoes. She loves summer–so many flip flops to sleep on. 🙂
Aren’t flip flops really cat pillows?