A Tale of Lighting Woes

Ah, the Christmas lights. I've mentioned before that my yard...well, you can see it from a ways away. It's one of those. And, seeing as I live in Arizona, we have saguaros in it. For those that don't know, they're these (picture not mine):



Tall, prickly, and looking good when wrapped up in lights. We have one in the front that, this year, is wrapped in red. And for some strange reason, one section about...see the tall arm on the right of this picture? About there...a section about there keeps going out. A fairly large section-two, three wraps around. And it's a pain to get out the ladder and go up there and fix it. Especially because the problem is that the bulbs are falling out. Seriously, they're turning up on the ground. Just three, only ever three.

Two, three nights this goes on. We find them, put them back, the next night they're out again. Loose sockets? Dunno.

But today...today we know. Because today, in addition to last night's unreplaced bulbs, we find three more. And we remember that a woodpecker lives in this particular saguaro.

We look, and sure enough, one of the out bulbs is in front of the hole it's made to get in.

This has never happened before, and these babies have been getting wrapped-and inhabited by birds-for over ten years. Maybe this one's new? Maybe we ticked it off? Or maybe it's like that 'Chicken Roaster' episode of Seinfeld. You know, this one (picture also not mine):



We may never know. We moved the strand and adjusted the bulb by the hole. One bulb, though, never did turn up. I maintain the bird took it and kept it as a trophy of its presumed victory.

Guess we'll find out tomorrow if the bird approves of the new arrangement...

-Lalla

Muse

I tried to think of a stupid pun, but Layne wouldn't let me use any of the ones I came up with. :(

Yeah, The Muse begins its free period today-it'll be free until December 11th.
It's here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MY6Q5M0?keywords=lalla%20squeglia&qid=1449496701&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2

Also, Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate!

-Lalla

Merry Grinchmas

Maybe it's because I have noisy neighbors too, but I always felt kinda bad for the Grinch.

Really. Make no mistake, my house looks like the house in Christmas Vacation. It flashes. You can see it from the end of the street. (Yeah, we're those people. Don't kill me.) BUT it's quiet. We turn it off at ten or so. And did I mention it's quiet?

The Grinch doesn't have me as a neighbor. He has neighbors who make such a racket that he gets a headache from the noise...10,000 feet up. Every year. For 53 years. And who's to say the Whos don't take any excuse for a party, y'know? What are they like on Who Independence Day? Or birthdays? Maybe Christmas is just the easy target, and they're noisy neighbors year-round.

My neighbors are noisy. Not so much now, but for a while they were having drunken sing-alongs in the front yard at like, midnight. On a weeknight. (I wouldn't have minded a Grinch-ly visitor to take their booze! :p)

So I get it. I so get it. Okay, so it might have been an overreaction to steal people's presents and food and stuff, but...even the most tolerant neighbor is going to snap if y'all insist on being so freaking loud. Shut up, for heaven's sake!

(And the Grinch has sewing skills, people. No pattern+red curtain+2 seconds of snip-snip=perfect Santa suit. I'm impressed.)

-Lalla

Ta-Da!

I gift to you...a free book to read! :D One Sunny Afternoon is now free on Kindle. Grab a copy, leave some love. Pretty please?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014AM9WGG?keywords=one%20sunny%20afternoon&qid=1448979073&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

-Lalla

Holiday Joy

Thanksgiving's come and gone (who had pie?), and now it's time for more freebies.

First up is One Sunny Afternoon, which will be free from December 1st (THIS TUESDAY! :D) to December 5th.

Then comes The Muse, which is free from December 7th to December 11th.

Finally it's The Maze, which is free from December 13th to December 17th.

Tell your friends. Tell your grandmother. Also, when those are all done, the title for the next one will be made public. (I'm excited. Don't let me be an excited dork by myself.)

-Lalla

Outtake

On one hand, this is made of adorable. (Which is why it didn't make it into The House on the Moor.) On the other hand, poor, poor Abigail. It must suck to know the guy you think is a murderer can pick you up. There go your hopes of, 'well, if he tries to stab me I can totally overpower him'.
* * *

She’d lost track of time-staring at the scenery would do that-when she became conscious of a warm weight on her shoulder.

“Nathan?”

Don’t be dead, don’t be dead…

No, just asleep. He’d been quiet, but…never mind. It had been a busy day.

She ought to move him, really. But they couldn’t be that far from home…she’d just leave him there. If she was being honest, she didn’t have the heart to move him.

She did make herself a little more comfortable, at least, before going back to looking out the window. He didn’t wake and she found herself checking every so often that he really was still asleep.

At one point he shivered and nestled up against her side. She reached over for the mack kept in here for sudden downpours and tucked it around him.

“’bigail?”

“Go back to sleep, we’re a ways out yet.”

“Thanks.”

“Shh.”

He sighed and said nothing else. She wasn’t sure he’d been awake at all, really.

She leaned against the window and took no small pleasure in being warm for the first time since they’d gone out. He didn’t move other than to burrow under the coat, one hand creeping up to hold it closed around his neck.

She’d close her eyes for a minute, she decided. Just for a minute…

* * *

She woke, a little, to Nathan’s voice.

“I’ll take her up to her room. Good night, Palmer.”

“Good night, sair.”

What? What was he talking about? Were they back already?

“Abigail.” She was awake, just give her a minute… “Come on.”

Before she could gather her wits enough to protest, he’d picked her up. No. No, she could walk, just give her a minute to wake up proper!

“C’n walk…”

“I doubt that very much.” She squirmed-well, twitched, anyway. “Don’t do that, you might find yourself dropped.”

Good. Dropped was better than carried.

“Down.” Lord, why wasn’t she waking up?

“In a minute.” Soon enough, he set her down on what she vaguely recognised as her bed. “There you go. Good night, Abigail.”

“Nathan?”

But he was already gone, door closing softly behind him. Well. If she wasn’t becoming aware of a dry mouth, she’d have thought she dreamt the whole thing. Stranger things had happened, but not many.

Winter

Pretty much. Unless you are a relative (that I know and like, not some distant one I see once every four years) or a dear friend that I never see, no hugs for you.

I hate hugs.

There. I said it.

I don't know why. I'm not traumatized or anything. My childhood was great. I just...I hate hugs. The closeness. The touching. Often, the smell of perfume/cologne. And, in recent times, this odd trend of 'hugging everyone, even if this is the first time you've met'. Seriously, what's that? What happened to the handshake? Or a little bow? That's kinda charming. (No hand-kissing, please, everyone I've known who tried to pull that off made it creepy and weird.) No. It's 'hug' now. Hug or nothing.

But now! Now it is winter (sort of), and winter means flu season. And, more importantly, winter means ways to avoid hugs from strangers. (Family doesn't care. Family just descends on you like hug-vampires and you have to shut up and accept it.)

I love winter. Winter clothes (so soft...), cold nights with coffee with Bailey's in it (that mint kind...*swoons*)...everything. Because it doesn't snow here. If I lived in snow-land I'd probably hate it.

You know what else is great about winter? No hugging. Well, less hugging among casual acquaintances, anyway. Either you run into them while shopping, which means that one or both of you has full hands, or you can claim, 'yeah, scratchy throat, better not'. Because nobody wants the flu.

-Lalla